Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence III (Touhou Fan Fiction)
by TheOVJM
Summary: You know what I think. I play this game with you not because I have to, but because I want to. Not like the others you use as your pawns. True, true my friend. I would just like to know what becomes of you after all of this. That remains to be seen. But the same can also be thought about you. What will become of you after all of this?


**Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence III**

How bright it could possibly get? Hard to say. But for Flandre it seemed that the limit had been hit. She didn't know where she was nor when. She was laying on the ground with her eyes closed but she could sense a really bright light getting through her eyelids. The last thing she remembered was that she had ran through the burning inferno into which the Scarlet Devil mansion had turned. After failing to rescue Flan she had tried to at leats get out alive herself but the sudden increase in heat had made her to collapse. The last thing she saw was how everything turned white around her before she lost her consciousness. Now she didn't know where she was nor was she even alive. It felt somehow unreal to just lay there. Was it because of the heat or was it because she had moved from time to eternity? It was hard question to answer. The only thing she realized was that nothing hurt. She had at least expected some sort of pain after running through a burning mansion and maybe even dying in the process.

"Am I in heaven? Or hell? Seems a bit too bright for hell, but do I even deserve heaven? Am I in neither of them? Has the universe decided to bring some other punishment onto me? ...Fitting...," Flandre murmured under her breath. She tried to open her eyes but the light was too bright and her eyes too sensitive. She would have to wait for them to adjust to the lighting a bit more.

"Was this meant to happen? If I died... does that mean that the cycle is broken and that no more realities will fall? Or am I just as meaningless as everyone else? ...Like I ever held any more importance than everyone else," Flandre muttered and brought her hand to her face. At least she still had her limbs. She then rubbed her eyes and face a little. She felt dizzy but her face apparently still had its form. She then slowly started to be able to open her eyes. As she slowly got her eyes open and they got used to the light she started to see where she was. Well 'where' is kinda strong term. 'In what kind of place' would describe it better because she had no idea where she was. It was bright, she could tell that much but other than that everything was blurry and mostly white. She looked at the ground. It too was as white as her surroundings but at least it was solid. As Flandre's head started to clear she started to distinguish some shapes from the whiteness that surrounded her. It seemed like she was in a room of some sort. It was big. Flandre managed to push herself up as she looked around herself in that strange place. She started to wobble to one direction to see where she was but her journey was cut short when she hit something hard. Flandre winced and yelped a little as she fell to her back and held her head. She then looked in front of herself but saw nothing. She then crawled to the same direction as before only to hit her head to the same hard object that had stopped her the first time.

"What the...? There's nothing here," Flandre thought to herself as she held her head and looked in front of herself. She then stretched out her hand and tried to find the thing that she had hit. She truly found something with her hand but not with her eyes. She could clearly feel with her hand that there was something solid in front of her but her eyes couldn't see anything. She then stood up while leaing against this invisible object. She was trying to find out how large it was. But when she stood up and still couldn't reach the top of the object she started to realize that it was rather huge object. She then started to walk to her left trying to find the edge of that thing but only ended up hitting another invisible object. After she had recovered from the impact again she started to inspect the situation a bit closer. She walked up to the other object while constantly touching the first object with her right hand. When she finally found the new object with her left hand she brought her hands closer to each other only to find out that the two objects met in a perfect ninety decree corner. It was then when she realized that there were invisible walls around her.

"Is this glass?" Flandre thought to herself and tucked the wall carefully but when it didn't brake it became clear to her that it was something other than glass. Something much more durable. Flandre then turned around and looked around herself a bit more. The world around her wasn't so blurry anymore and she had started to distinguish some more shapes and colors from within the whiteness. Colorful flashing lights, black buttons and switches were scattered around the room she was in. It actually looked like the bunker where Marisa had taken her before she had traveled in time and had ended up in this reality. Although this place was much more... elegant to say the least. It wasn't made from the same crude Kappa technology as Marisa's laboratory bunker. She looked around a bit more and happened to look up. There she saw a black rail forming a square to the roof. It seemed to be emitting some blueish glow. She then happened to touch the invisible wall again and realized that the black rail on the roof and the invisible wall were on the same place. The rail on the roof was forming the wall somehow.

"That's rather strange," Flandre muttered to herself while tilting her head and scratching her hair. She then walked to the middle of the space she was shut in by the invisible walls and sat down to think.

"Okay... It's time to think. I'm definitely not dead. Where am I, what's this place and how did I end up in here? This is not the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Flandre muttered out loud.

"You couldn't be more wrong," Flandre then suddenly heard being said behind her. She recognized the voice but the tone felt somehow alien to her. Flandre turned around to see a familiar figure standing outside the invisible barrier staring at her. It was Sakuya. She stared at Flandre with strange, almost cold look on her face. Flandre winced a little. She knew that she had opened Sakuya's watch in hopes of letting her go free but she also remembered what had happened just before she had found out about the watch and how it was capable of time traveling. Sakuya in front of her wasn't the same Sakuya she knew. She also looked different. Her maid outfit was gone and was now replaced by a pretty thight looking black leather jacket and pants. On top of those she had a black and long coat. She had opened the plaits on her hair allowing it to flow free. She was also wearing a pair of long dark brown boots. Flandre looked at her for couple of seconds not knowing how she should act in the situation.

"I suppose I have you to thank for not letting me burn to death," Sakuya said with cold tone and walked around the invisible barrier behind which Flandre was locked without looking at her even once.

"W-where am I? What is this place?" Flandre then asked carefully. She was looking how Sakuya simply walked around the barrier to the side of the room where there were all kinds of buttons and switches. Sakuya then sat down to something that looked like a chair and looked at Flandre.

"I told it to you just a second ago. You haven't moved an inch," Sakuya responded with blank look on her face.

"I don't understand. W-what do you mean I haven't moved an inch?" Flandre asked. Sakuya's statement didn't make any sense to her.

"Pffft, I shouldn't expect anything from you. An idiot to the very being," Sakuya then just bridled without caring.

"Hey, I didn't save your life so you can just call me an idiot," Flandre retorted but her words were met with a sharp and cold glare from Sakuya.

"You're in no position to talk like that. In fact you should be the one to be thankful. In the end I made the split second decision to save you from burning to death. And since I'm feeling generous you're still breathing," Sakuya spat out and stared at Flandre without changing that cold expression on her face.

"In fact I have more reason to kill you than to keep you alive," Sakuya said and pulled out the watch Flandre had held in her pocket. Flandre gulped as she saw the watch dangling in Sakuya's grip.

"What you did to this watch doomed to whole time continuum. So tell me one good reason why you should see the next day," Sakuya hissed while glaring at Flandre.

"W-what do you mean 'did to that watch'? I haven't done anything to it," Flandre said with a bit more scared tone and look on her face.

"Don't play stupid with me. Time traveling just like that isn't possible. This watch has nothing to do with time traveling so how come you were able to use it to that," Sakuya continued while slightly swinging the watch from left to right.

"I'm telling the truth. I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't meddled with the watch in any way, the time traveling just happens," Flandre whimpered and backed away a little.

"This watch was created to store one's mind and alter their biology temporarily. It is a last resort to try to save oneself. That's why it also is an optical interferer once one's mind is stored within. It makes it impossible for one's mind to detect the watch. It makes sure that it isn't opened by accident and reattach the mind and body at the wrong moment. This device has nothing to do with timetraveling," Sakuya explained the watch's function with serious but now not so threatening glare spark in her eyes.

"I'm not lying. I don't know how it happened nor did I do it intentionally," Flandre insisted while looking at annoyed looking Sakuya.

"You're an idiot... nothing more," Sakuya bridled and tossed the watch onto the ground, stood up and walked to the consoles.

"M-maybe it was imbued with magic?" Flandre asked and looked at Sakuya who then just glared at Flandre over her shoulder.

"Magic? Magic... I've heard that word enough to drive me crazy while I had my mind sealed within that watch. You use that word so proudly not knowing what it actually even is. 'Magic' as you've taken liberty of calling it is one of the most basic forces of the universe; the dark energy. The driving force that keeps the universe from collapsing. That is what magic is. It is a basic energy that can be manipulated into basically anything if one has the knowledge and means to do so," Sakuya said with much more calm tone.

"Each living and non living being in the whole cosmos is bound by the dark energy. Though as the universe expands the kowledge on how to manipulate it has become more and more rare. These days only few exceptional beings can manipulate it. Beings like you. You are used to manipulating the dark energy but for someone like a human that kind of an ability is dangerous since humans are born to live in a static balance of the dark energy. If used too much human may and will collapse since they have used too much of the dark energy that holds them together," Sakuya explained and sighed deeply. It was almost like she was disappointed.

"Why are you telling me this?" Flandre then asked with a bit bemused tone and look on her face.

"Because I can't stand your ignorance towards the very force that allows you to exist," Sakuya bridled and turned her gaze away from Flandre.

"But didn't you just say that it is dangerous for humans to use that power? How come you use your time control so much?" Flandre asked with unsure tone.

"Don't make me laugh. I've never used 'magic' in any way in my entire life," Sakuya said while laughing sarcastically. Flandre just looked at her with confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"What you think is me controlling the flow of time is me just subconsciously communicating with my ship," Sakuya said and turned towards Flandre.

"A... ship?" Flandre asked while looking at Sakuya.

"Look around yourself. You haven't moved even a single inch after you collapsed becasuse of the fire. The mansion and everything within have been just an optical illusion, a camouflage. What you called 'the Scarlet Devil Mansion' I call Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," Sakuya said and span around once with her arm stretched out.

"I- I don't undertsand," Flandre said with still confused look on her face.

"You never do, do you. Let me put this simply so you hopefully will understand. This is a time machine. A real time machine. A time machine that doesn't harm the time continuum by having a built in paradox prevention system. A time machine that is as close to a living being as a machine can be. A time machine that has a subconscious link between me and itself. While my mind has been out of the game my ship has made sure that I survive by letting me control it subconsciously. To put it simply, it allowed me to stop and manipulate time and space at will without me even realizing," Sakuya explained and touched the wall of the room they were in like it could feel her touch.

"Time and.. space? What does that have to do with anything?" Flandre asked with doubtful look on her face.

"Has anyone ever told you how the mansion feels bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?" Sakuya then asked with her arms akimbo.

"Uhh, I don't remember anyone mentioning it but isn't that the truth. The mansion indeed was bigger on the inside," Flandre said with unsure tone.

"Exactly. The 'mansion' was bigger on the inside because this very ship was disguised as a mansion. This ship can manipulate time and space in ways your mind cannot comprehend. The 'mansion' never burned down. I just moved it. Only things that were left behind were the library and the basement because they weren't original parts of my ship. Your sister added them at her own will," Sakuya added and looked much more serious again.

"I'm sorry I got lost again. J-just how does my sister fit into all of this? Why did she own the mansion if it was actually your 'ship'? J-just what are you?" Flandre asked with confused and unbelieving look on her face. Sakuya then just stared at Flandre for a moment, sighed and then walked up to her and squatted down to the other side of the invisible barrier.

"I, the person who you know as Sakuya Izayoi, am a last member of a once a glorious race. We were experts when it came to the universe. We understood its structure, concepts and how it worked. We were the first intelligent race to ever walk the surface of any of the objects on the sky. The first intelligent race of the universe. As for me, my name is the Hunter," Sakuya said and smirked a little.

"What kind of a name is that?" Flandre asked and stared at Sakuya. She had started to become more and more fascinated now when her fear for Sakuya had started to fade.

"It may sound absurd to you but the tradition dictates that my real name cannot be known by anyone else other than the one who gave me the name and the person with whom I may get married," Sakuya continued with a bit more serious look on her face.

"But to make it so that we have even some identity we take a new name for ourselves. I took the name the Hunter," Sakuya said while leaning against her knees while sitting there.

"But how, how did it come to this? Why did you end up at the service of my sister. What of your home, your people... You look awfully human to be an alien," Flandre said while looking at Sakuya with intrigued look on her face.

"They're gone... All gone. Burned," Sakuya uttered and the look on her face darkened immediately.

"Why, tell me," Flandre said and sidled closer to the invisible barrier between the two.

"My people, they... you know how sometimes instead of asking yourself 'can you do it' you should ask 'should you do it'? My people were proud race. They were ahead of everyone and everything else. Knowing this they pledged themselves to look over the universe. Never interfere, only to watch. This proved to be our downfall. As we didn't intervene the other races went beyond the point where we could stop them. We decided to stay away from the cares of the world never asking if the world needed us. So in the end it should never have been a surprise for us that one race stood above the rest and finally managed to challenge our people," Sakuya continued with grim look on her face. She had not looked at Flandre even once while explaining.

"That conflict was the bloodiest in all of time's history. Adults and children screaming and burning alive. It wasn't even a war, it was genocide where each side sought to eliminate the other. I too was part of the battles. I was nothing special. I wasn't a high ranking officer or anything like that. I was just a soldier doomed to die screaming in pain. But even so I fought with people whose names I never got to know. I just simply fought waiting for that one shot that would instantly kill me. But that one shot never came. I got wounded several times but I always regenerated and returned to the battlefield with a face of a stranger," Sakuya explained with empty look in her eyes.

"Regenerated? What do you mean by that?" Flandre asked with curious and almost amazed look on her face.

"Aye, my people, through the ages we have existed have gained an ability to regenrate ourselves. Saving ourselves from the verge of death with the cost of our personality and appearance. We gained this ability from the constant exposure to the time vortex. Such a violent and ruthless power. Power that no one should be exposed without their own will. That regeneration ability we gained from the exposure to the time vortex allows us to regenerate a new body twelve times. After that we will have wasted our energy and cannot regenerate anymore. One can also die by denying the regeneration or if they're killed before they can regenerate. You see, on the verge of death we enter a stasis like form. We may have been forced to sustain lethal wounds or organ failure but our bodies continue living and in that form we can decide wether to regenerate or not. But if we're killed before we can regenerate a new body and personality we will die permanently," Sakuya explained and finally took a look at Flandre who was staring back at her with amazed look on her face.

"Stasis like form...? Wait, are you talking about the same thing that happened to Marisa? How she wasn't dead nor alive?" Flandre asked by almost yelling. The realization had hit her pretty hard at that moment.

"Aye, now when the time is starting to fracture and glitch out the time vortex is starting to pour free. You specifically, once you traveled through the time without any protection you got infected by the time vortex. Meaning that while you're around something cannot exist in any other form than in one certain. In your case it meant Marisa. She would either die or turn into a being like you. She didn't have the power to regenerate on her own but you turning her was enough to be a regeneration and thus she continues living," Sakuya explained and looked at Flandre with serious look on her face. Flandre just stared back at her and waited for her to continue.

"In the end, on that battlefield I started to lose my sense of time. To this day I have no idea how many times I regenerated," Sakuya continued with melancholic tone and look on her face. She was still staring into nothing while telling her story.

"So how the battle ended? You're still alive," Flandre said and looked at Sakuya with fascinated look on her face.

"Hah, if you're thinking that it ended in our victory just because I'm alive, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. The fights had started to heat up. It had already been third day since the last time I had slept. Our enemy was bombarding us with force like never before. We were told to keep our position no matter what and if we were to fall then we'd fight to the very last breath. At the heat of the moment I had no idea about our or the enemy's losses. The warzone had turned into a literal hell in just couple of minutes and it went so far that we had to use the bodies of our fallen comrades as our cover. In the end I got literally buried in corpses as our and the enemy's the artillery bombarded the field... Then it all fell quiet... I had already hoped that I had died but once I dag myself from the pile of corpses I realized that I was as alive as ever," Sakuya said while staring at the ground with expressionless look on her face.

"What happened? Why did the battle stop?" Flandre asked while holding her breath. She was really intrigued by Sakuya's story.

"The both sides obliterated each other. At first it seemed like our victory since I was the last one alive but when I tried to contact our headquarters on my home planet the truth was slammed onto my face. There was no responce. No matter what radio channel I used, they were all dead silent. I feared that my home was destroyed and that the enemy had won. So I took this ship. It had survived intact in our underground base. I immediately returned to the coordinates of my home but when I got there...," Sakuya stopped with her eyes wide open. Flandre just looked at her and waited. She had never seen this look on Sakuya's face.

"The whole planet was gone. There was nothing left... My people and our enemy. They had all vanished. I still tried to get a contact with radio to see if anyone was alive but after a week of failed attempts I started accepting the fact that I was all alone now. My people were gone... That I was the last of my species," Sakuya said and buried her face into her knees.

"Woah... That... That must've hurt," Flandre said with compassionate look on her face and moved a bit closer to Sakuya.

"More than you can ever imagine," Sakuya muttered with her face still buried in her knees.

"I believe I can. So what then? How did you end up in here?" Flandre asked and looked how Sakuya lifted her gaze from the ground.

"I refused to give up. I started to search. Search around the universe in hopes of finding at least one other survivor. Though... without success. But I still believe to this day that there might be someone else out there. But I wont find them. Universe is too big... and I have the humans to protect," Sakuya said and finally took a glimpse at Flandre and smirked slightly.

"What do you mean with 'having humans to protect'?" Flandre asked and tilted her head.

"I had traveled all across galaxies, stars and planets when I finally ended up here. I didn't need a second look to tell that this planet was able to sustain life. I was planning to land onto the moon orbiting the planet to gather some intel before landing onto the planet itself. But... the landing onto the moon... well it didn't go as I expected," Sakuya said and the look on her face switched to much more serious.

"What happened?" Flandre asked.

"I had hoped for a soft landing like it had always been. Turned out that there was an interdimensional barrier on the moon. I hadn't expected that so I hadn't bothered scan for any anomalies. This ship was designed to be able to pass through a barrier like that but since it happened by accident and I wasn't prepared the landing was a disaster. My ship suffered major damage and was almost ripped inside out. I was lucky not being ripped to pieces in that crash. It was truly a miracle that I was still able to regenerate. I was really badly damaged. But my life was saved and I was able to make a full recovery... thanks to that Yagokoro woman," Sakuya said and sighed a little.

"Wait. Yagokoro? Are you saying that... No way. You... It was you who Eirin was talking about, wasn't it!? She said that long ago she had witnessed something similiar to Marisa's condition back on the moon. It was you!?" Flandre exclaimed with shocked and surprised look on her face.

"Aye. At first I was shocked. To see a living being that resembled so much my own people was so surreal. She offered me a place to stay till I would get my ship back into shape. And while I stayed there she told me about her origin. About humans who inhabited the planet which the moon was orbiting. She told me that Lunarians had evolved from humans. I decided that if Lunarians' physical appearance resmbled that of my own people so much I had to get onto that planet, Earth, and see the humans myself. So after I got my ship back into shape I left the moon and headed to Earth. To my surprise the humans were so primitive when compared to the Lunarians. They hadn't even discovered every continent of their clobe and thought that it was flat," Sakuya said almost amused look on her face. She then turned her face towards Flandre and looked at her.

"That was a little before you were born. But as I studied these people the more and more it started to feel like home. They resembled my own people not just in physical way but also in mental way too. It was just as if I had returned home... and that's why... that was the reason why I started to hunt you down. When I learned about your kind, the vampires I felt that it was my job to protect the humans from you. Even if you didn't pose threat big enough to threaten the existence of humans, every time I saw a human killed by one of you I felt enraged. Like one of my own had been just killed. I guess I was still grieving for my own people and hunting you down was my way of revenging them... even if it didn't mean anything," Sakuya said with scary determination in her eyes. Flandre just gulped a little.

"I- I see. I think I know the rest. You find and challenge Remilia. She bests you in battle and learns that you're something else than a human but you escape," Flandre said while staring at sakuya with compassionate look on her face.

"Uh, yes. How did you know that?" Sakuya asked with almsot surprised tone after taking a look at Flandre.

"She told me back in my original timeline. She told me that after she had ripped your heart out you escaped. She decided track you down to learn the truth about you," Flandre continued.

"She however didn't know everything. After I escaped I had barely enough time to regenerate. I knew she would come after me so I had to cover my tracks. That's why I disguised my ship as a mansion and programmed that watch to conceal my true self and turn my body into that of a human upon regenerating. Though this time I didn't just change my face and personality. I made sure that I would turn into an infant in the regeneration. And so I did... That's how the 'Sakuya' you know was born. I remember everything from that time. How I was found and raised by this family... Ironically they were really afraid of vampires so they thaught me to fight them. My hunt continued even if my true consciousness was concealed away. I hunted vampires with the help of that time controlling ability my ship provided for me without me knowing it. It prolonged my life and gave me abilities far beyond human reach. That was also the reason why I started to become more and more distant to humans. In the eyes of 'Sakuya' they were too different... too inferior. That is when I joined the army... and soon after I and Remilia faced each other once more. That's when I joined her. I guess it was my ship's subconsciouss guidance it gave me that ended up leading us to it and making it the 'Scarlet Devil Mansion'. In the end Remilia must have figured out the connection between me and the mansion since she and Patchouli were able to somewhat control my ship by manipulating that connection. That's how we ended up in Gensokyo. And... well... now we're here," Sakuya finished her story and smirked a little.

"Wow... That's... ehh... quite the tale... But why tell me all this? If you feel like us vampires are just danger to humans then why did you save me and why haven't you killed me already?" Flandre asked and tilted her head. Asking something like that felt weird to her but she couldn't help but to feel sorry for Sakuya.

"I've been thinking about it myself too. I could dispose of you easily but instead I decided to tell my life story to you... Why?" Sakuya said and looked at Flandre.

"D- don't ask me. I've just sat here and listened to you," Flandre said and backed off a little bit.

"Because when I look at you I see myself," Sakuya uttered with expressionless look on her face. There was a long silence. Only the soft humming of the engine of the ship could be heard.

"W- what do you mean by that?" Flandre asked carefully.

"I hate to admit it but each time I lay my eyes onto you I can't help but to see myself in your place. You are as stubborn as I am. You do what you believe in just like I... although be it in vain. You carry great deal of emotional pain within you like I. And... you're one of the last of your kind... just like I am the last of mine," Sakuya said and looked down again.

"Wait, what do you mean with 'one of the last of my kind'?" Flandre asked with clueless look on her face.

"Don't be stupid," Sakuya said, laughed a bit and looked at Flandre but she just tilted her head and looked back at Sakuya.

"Remilia never told you?" Sakuya then asked after a brief silence.

"Told me what?" Flandre asked with a bit sceptical tone and look on her face. For some reason she didn't like where this was going.

"Before we moved to Gensokyo Remilia had made us search through the whole world for any remaining vampires. She had been disposing them with me one by one. She intended to become the strongest vampire by making sure none remained besides her. Ultimately we had wiped out every single one, except for you and your sister. But... as the humans started industrializing and the youkai started vanishing from the face of the Earth since human belief wasn't able to sustain them anymore, Remilia started fearing for her own existance," Sakuya explained and enhanced her posture on the floor.

"That power of the belief... is it connected to that dark energy?" Flandre asked carefully.

"Yes. And as more and more youkai disappeared Remilia started searching for the answer. That's when she learned about Gensokyo and managed to transport herself along with everyone else there with my ship. After arriving she proceeded to finish what she had started, to kill every last remaining vampire within Gensokyo. And she succeeded. Flandre... you, Marisa and Remilia are the three last remaining vampires in the whole world," Sakuya finished and looked at Flandre with almost sad look on her face. Flandre just sat there. She didn't know what to say. On the other hand she was furious because Remilia had killed their own kind but at the same time she was unable to grieve since she had never felt a strong sense kinship when it came to other vampires. Not even towards her sister. To her there were only her friends and family members. She had never stopped to think that most of the people, even though there weren't many of them, weren't the same species as she was.

"I just felt that you should know this," Sakuya said after a brief silence and stood up. Flandre just looked silently as Sakuya walked back to the control panels. Flandre just sat there silently. It was all so much to take in. Finally she broke the silence by saying, "So what now? What are you going to do? The world is falling apart. We have to do something."

"Yeah. I have something in mind," Sakuya responded without even looking at Flandre.

"What is it?" Flandre asked with much more lightened up tone and look on her face.

"We sit back and just watch it happen. That's pretty much all we can do," Sakuya responded while still staring at ther control panel.

"What!? You cannot be serious! You just told me your own story and how you refused believe that your race was dead so you kept on trying to find them! But now you give up so easily!?" Flandre exclaimed from her prison.

"Hey, look, if I could do something I would. But trust me. This is beyond my comprehension. I have no idea how to fix this nor if it is even possible," Sakuya uttered with calm tone, stepped away from the control panel and looked at Flandre.

"So you're just gonna give up without even trying!?" Flandre kept yelling and stood up with almost furious look on her face.

"Aye, I'm old and tired... and so is the universe. I think it would be best if we all just layed down our weapons, rested and just let it happen... what ever is going to happen. You should consider doing it yourself too sometime. Thinking about what is best for everyone is kind and all but have you ever stopped to think about that maybe you don't have to be the hero in each scenario. Maybe you just have to learn to let go," Sakuya said and looked at Flandre staright to her eyes. Flandre could clearly see that Sakuya looked really tired all of a sudden. She then walked up to the door on the wall of the room they were in and pressed it open. Flandre could just watch the hundreds of stars that could be seen on the other side of the door. She really hadn't expected that view. She had thought that there would be just another room behind that door, not a damn outern space. After recovering from the surprise she just watched how Sakuya sat down onto the door frame and started dangling her feet outside the ship.

"So you're just gonna keep me trapped here in your ship so I can't take any action?" Flandre asked with a bit pissed tone but still a bit surprised look on her face.

"Trapped? You're not trapped anywhere. I disabled the force field as soon as I got to the control panels after you woke up. Actually I'd suggest you to come here and take a look. The view is... kinda sad actually," Sakuya said while staring outside. Flandre then stood up and walked up to the spot where there had been an invisible wall. She reached out with her hand was surprised to find that the wall indeed was gone. She the carefully stepped over the line where the wall had been and walked up to Sakuya.

"Look... it's so different since the last time I saw it," Sakuya said and stared in front of them. Flandre looked outside the door. She saw an enormous object in front of them that stretched all the way into the horizon. It was covered with reddish clouds and behind the clouds could be seen mostly gray surface. When she looked to the right, left, up and down she could see that it stretched into the space as far as the eye could see until the starry space took over the view.

"What is that?" Flandre asked with surprised and a bit of shocked tone but with a calm look on her face.

"That's your Earth," Sakuya responded and just stared at the object while sitting in the doorframe.

"E- Earth? It doesn't look anything like the pictures I've seen in books," Flandre responded and backed away a step.

"The time and space have been warped. The laws of physics don't apply anymore. What you see now in front of yourself is the Earth of every single shattered universe all clumped up together in a one massive stew of mass. The universe is now full of these enormous, impossible objects that stretch out endlessly," Sakuya said and looked at the 'Earth' with sad look on her face.

"B- but Gensokyo didn't seem to have changed all that much? Are they too somewhere in there?" Flandre asked with the hint of fright in her tone.

"No. Gensokyo is its own pocket dimension. It'll be separated from that clusterfuck as long as the barrier holds. If the barrier around it falls so will Gensokyo," Sakuya explained.

"So we've been completely oblivious about the fact that the outside world had been destroyed already while we've been safe in our own world... I guess Koishi wasn't lying," Flandre said and just stared at the mass in front of them.

"Aye. This has happened to each planet, each moon, each star even to each asteroid that exists in the universe," Sakuya said and stood up.

"So we are in space now?" Flandre asked and looked how Sakuya walked back to the control panels.

"Aye but there's no need to worry. The force field around my ship will keep the oxygen inside the ship and prevent it from escaping into the space. You can even stick your head outside. Even if you were to fall you would still just float next to the ship so there's no danger what so ever," Sakuya said with a bit indifferent tone. Flandre then peeked out from the ship to see how it looked from the outside. She was shocked. When she tried to look for the outside wall with her eyes the only thing she saw was that the door where she peeked out was on the side of a gray metal tube barely big enough to hold a person in it. Flandre then pulled her head back and looked around herself. The ship, it truly was bigger, no, it was enormous on the inside when compared to the outside. Flandre had to sat down and collect her thoughts for a moment. It was all just so confusing to her. Sakuya then walked up to her and gave her a glass of water.

"Here, this should ease your feeling. You can drink water, right? Even if you can not touch flowing water?" Sakuya asked and gave the glass to Flandre.

"Yeah, of course I can," Flandre said, took the glass and nodded to Sakuya as a thanks. She then drank the contents of the glass, put it down and looked at Sakuya.

"So... Sakuya, can I still call you that?" Flandre asked with unsure tone and look on her face.

"I see no harm in it. In the end I've been called that for almost hundred years by now," Sakuya responded and smirked a little.

"Okay, thanks. So where are you headed now? If this is a ship then where are you going with it?" Flandre asked and looked at Sakuya.

"You're still planning to 'save the day'?" Sakuya asked and sighed a little.

"What else could I do? You may be able lay down and just let it happen because this had nothing to do with you in the first place. But you told me to think what is the best for me and I've been thinking about that. I've come into a conclusion that I'm doing this for myself. I started this. I am the responsible for that... thing on the outside of this ship. I am responsible for all of this. I cannot forgive myself if I don't at least do everything I can to fix it. My consciousness wont let me rest. If you're not going to let me do this because of them, then let me do it because of myself," Flandre said and stared into Sakuya's eyes.

"*Sigh You're naive, you know that? The reason why you want to do it doesn't change anything... but... at leats you're doing it for the right reasons," Sakuya said, patted Flandre once on top of her head and walked up to the control panels again.

"So... what?" Flandre asked with confused look on her face.

"I'm gonna regret this but... *sigh I'm gonna let you in on a little secret," Sakuya said, took a glimpse at Flandre, cracked her fingers and started pressing the buttons and flipping switches on the control panel.

"The barrier that I accidentally flew through when I arrived to the moon is the same as the one around Gensokyo. Did you know that the two are actually connected? That is the reason why your sister was able to fly to the moon with a rocket in the first place. There's a direct passage between the Lunar Capital of the moon and Gensokyo of Earth. BUT! And this is a big but. You do remember how Yukari said that the one who made the barrier was nowhere to be found in Gensokyo. She's just the one upholding it. So... where is the person who made the barrier around the Lunar Capital and Gensokyo if not in Gensokyo?" Sakuya said while pressing buttons on the control panel.

"The fourth sage... They're in the Lunar Capital? On the moon?" Flandre asked with her eyes open from the realization.

"Aye. I am ninety nine point nine percent sure of that. Yukari must have known this but didn't want to tell us that for some reason," Sakuya said and flipped the one fnal switch before turning towards Flandre. The engines started humming lot more loudly.

"Why would she want to tell us that?" Flandre asked and tilted her head.

"Beats me. Never understood her mindset anyway," Sakuya said while leaning against the control panel.

"So you think the fourth sage could help me get all of this fixed? You think that it is possible after all?" Flandre asked with a lot more lightened up tone and look on her face.

"I don't know. That is just the only thing I could think of to get you started at least. That person might know something. But first we must find them. Even when I was in the Lunar Capital I was never told anything about who constructed the barrier or where they were now. We migth have hard time searching," Sakuya said, span towards the control panel and flipped one of the switches before turning back towards Flandre. There was a hollow thump. Like someone had hit a kettle drum outside the ship. The engines had stopped as well. Flandre just stood there silently and looked around herself.

"What just happened?" She asked after no engine sounds could be heard anymore.

"Go and take a look by yourself," Sakuya responded while leaning against the control panel with her arms akimbo. Flandre just looked at Sakuya with a bit sceptical look on her face before walking to up to the door again while constantly keeping her eye on Sakuya. She then pushed the door open to take a look outside and when she did she was almost thrown to her back by the shock. In front of her was a view of a grey and rocky landscape. The sky was full of stars when it wasn't blocked by that 'Earth'. Flandre backed away from the door, pointed at the view in front of herself, then at Sakuya and then back at the view with baffled look on her face.

"But... wh- how? We were... no we're- wh...? How did you do it?" Flandre finally managed to utter while looking at smug Sakuya.

"Didn't I just explain that this is a ship," Sakuya simply responded and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well when you said that this was a ship I thought it would be a rocket or some sort of space boat that would take its time to reach its destination, what ever it may be," Flandre almsot yelled with still completely confused tone and look on her face.

"It's called warp drive for a reason. My people, even if they had many life spans, didn't have time to wait for their ships to reach their destination," Sakuya retorted with a bit annoyed look tone. She then walked up to the door and looked at Flandre.

"Now then, shall we get moving or do you want to stay here?" Sakuya asked and pointed outside the ship. Flandre just looked at her for a moment before she headed out from door like Sakuya suggested. Sakuya then followed her and closed the door behind them. Before taking any more steps Flandre stopped and took a look at the ship. It was round, gray, metallic cpasule, maybe two and a half meters tall and one wide.

"Just how do you do it? Turn this into a mansion from the outside and the inside as well?" Flandre asked with amazed tone and look on her face while circling around the ship.

"Optical camouflage, like I said. This ship is already bigger on the inside, a lot bigger than you can imagine so disguising it to be beigger on the outside isn't that big of a deal," Sakuya responded and shrugged her shoulders. When Flandre had finally gotten her eyes off the ship she could take a look around. The landscape was rough. The ground felt like they were walking on sand but this sand wasn't like the sand back on earth. This was much more coarse. There were also many rocks, big and small ones dotting the landscape. All and all it looked much like grey desert during the night. There were few smallish mountains in the distance.

"Now then. We should head towards the Lunar Capital if we want to reach it," Sakuya said and signed Flandre to follow her as she started walking away from the ship.

"But... can we breath out there?" Flandre asked with unsure look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, we're within the border around the Lunar Capital. We have air here. Now come," Sakuya responded without even looking at Flandre. Flandre then just sighed, mostly for relief but also because of frustration since they had to walk to the Lunar Capital.

Their journey was painstakingly slow. Most of the time Flandre found herself entertaining herself by watching the stars and the twisted Earth in the sky. The Earth was taking about half of the sky but there were still plenty of stars to look at. And when they were on top of a small mountain or hill Flandre could take a few moments to look around and enjoy the view. Although there wasn't much to enjoy. The landscape looked pretty much the same no matter where she looked. But to her the most baffling thing was that she was on the moon. That ball which she had seen from earth many times and that gave her more power during the night times. And when Flandre thought about it for a moment or two it seemed weird that she didn't feel anything different from being on Earth except the low gravity. She had thought that stepping onto the moon would at least awoken something from within her but there was nothing.

"Hey Sakuya, I've been thinking, why it doesn't feel any way different for me to be on the moon. I mean we vampires gain power from the moon, so why do I feel completely normal," Flandre asked with a bit confused tone.

"You don't gain power from the moon, you gain power from the sunlight that is being reflected from the moon. How should I explain this? It is... something like fotosynthesis, I guess," Sakuya responded after thinking about it for a moment.

"I have no idea what that is," Flandre responded and tilted her head.

"Doesn't surprise me," Sakuya said and swiped the air with her hand indifferently. Flandre just scratched her hair as they continued their walk. To her it felt strange that the power which made her more powerful and the power that would kill her were technically speaking the same. Just sent from different sources. But that wasn't the only thing she had been wondering. Something had caught her eye. In the distance there was this pretty big blue area that she could see when they were on top of a mountain. And by the looks of it they were heading towards it. There had been nothing other than gray landscape so far so this was something new which got her almost excited to see what it was. As they descented the mountain she lost her visual to that blue thing in the distance but she could tell that they were heading towards it. She didn't bother to ask sakuya what it was because it seemed that she would learn soon enough.

It had been three hours after they had gotten down from the mountain. They had been walking across plain fields of dust for so long that Flandre had started to count stars on the sky out of boredom. But she still knew how annoying it would be for Sakuya if she started whining that she was bored or asking when they were at their destination. And the last thing she wanted to do was to piss off Sakuya and get her to leave her to the moon. But luckily she didn't have to think about that much anymore because when they reach a top of a small hill on the edge of the field of dust the had just walked across she saw the huge blue area right in front of her.

"A... sea? How in the world?" Flandre asked with amazed look on her face while watching the huge blue sea that stretched into the horizon.

"This is the Sea of Tranquility as seen from within the barrier around the capital. It is one of the three great seas the moon has," Sakuya said and started descending down the hill towards the blue sea. Flandre followed shortly after her with curious look on her face. The color of the water was bright light-blue and the water was clearer that Flandre had ever seen before. She and sakuya approached the shoreline and when they did reach it Sakuya sat onto the shore. She grabbed a handful of dust and threw it at the lake. Ripples were formed onto the otherwise completely plain surface of water. It was then when Flandre realized that there were no waves on the surface of the sea nor were there any wind.

"I remember how I liked to spent time on the shores here when I had crashed to the moon. This place sure lives up to its name. I also remember how I and your sister landed onto the moon with that 'rocket'. It was disastrous to say the least. Strange that seeing this sight back then didn't awake any memories of the first time I visited this place," Sakuya uttered while leaning against her knees and watching the plain sea.

"But at least you remember now. Isn't that the most important?" Flandre asked and looked at Sakuya.

"I guess so," Sakuya simply uttered and kept on staring into nothingness. Flandre then walked next to her, squatted down and tipped her finger into the water. It was cold but at least it was water and it wasn't flowing so she was okay with it. She then stood up and looked at Sakuya again.

"So... what now? You didn't bring me here to just look at the views, did you?" Flandre asked and wiped her finger to her dress.

"Of course not," Sakuya said and stood up. She then look around for a moment and then pointed into the distance.

"See that thing over there. That's the Lunar Capital. The reason why I brought you to the Sea of Tranquility is because the capital is easier to find that way since it is built near its shore," Sakuya explained while looking into the distance. Flandre just squinted her eyes till she finally saw something in the horizon on the left side of the sea when looked from their current position. There were few tall buildings in the distance which gave away the existance of the capital. Or at least they looked tall buildings. She was expecting for the capital to be something wondrous. In the end Lunarians were pretty advanced.

They started walking towards the Lunar Capital along the shoreline of the Sea of Tranquility. Even if they could see the city already it still looked like it would take them a while till they would reach it.

"By the way, Sakuya if you travelled all across the universe in hopes of finding more of your people then you must have seen some pretty awesome stuff," Flandre said and looked at Sakuya allusive grin on her face.

"What are you implying?" Sakuya simply asked.

"Tell me about something. About what you've seen. There must have been all kinds of things one could only dream of," Flandre asked with her eyes burning with curiosity.

"Well I can't deny that I've seen a thing or two during my travels," Sakuya responded and laughed a bit.

"I've started wondering recently about what kind of worlds lie beyond the skies. In my own timeline I traveled to Makai and saw the World of Fantasies while I was at it. Just seeing the stars fly by was enough to ignite my imagination," Flandre said while looking up to the starry sky with plaintive look on her face.

"World of Fantasies?" Sakuya asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Uhhh... That's what I was old it was. I really don't know what it was," Flandre responded and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well sounds like you're familiar with strange things. Maybe even more than I am," Sakuya said and shook her head playfully.

"But tell me about something. Anything. I'm curious," Flandre said and poked Sakuya's arm.

"Well there truly are few interesting things I've seen. For an instance, in the Tadpole galaxy there is an actual living star," Sakuya said and pointed at the sky to the direction where the galaxy was located.

"A living star? How does that even work?" Flandre asked and tilted her head.

"No one knows. Some believe a star can potentially gain their own consciousness if they live for long enough. The one I saw was so huge that it had absorbed hydrogen from its neughbours and had been able to sustain itself for far longer than star normally could. And then there's the Crystal Ball of Mayall. A planet purely made of diamond," Sakuya said and pointed to another spot on the sky.

"Wait? Diamond? Just how rich would you be if you owned that thing?" Flandre asked and looked at the spot where Sakuya was pointing.

"Not that rich. If someone where to get their hands onto a diamond that large it would lose its value. And besides the planet is so close to its parent star that it is impossible to reach it. Plus the pressure is larger than at the bottom of your oceans," Sakuya said while gazing at the sky herself.

"Oh, and then there's the dual planet Trias and Velum. Trias is a huge waterworld that has people who have adapted to the life underwater completely. And then there's its sister Velum. A small planet with surprisingly thick atmosphere. The low gravity and thick atmosphere combined were enough to make you able to fly by flapping only your hands. Velum also had the most beautiful sights one could dream of. Huge towering mountains that rose from the ground in a ninety degree angle and grassy plains that stretched as far as the eye could see," Sakuya said with plaintive look on her face while looking at the stars above them.

"Sounds wondrous," Flandre said with amazed look on her face.

"It truly was. Though none of them had any signs of my people," Sakuya said and the look on her face switched from plaintive to sad.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But... uhhh, what were the scariest places you've seen in the universe?" Flandre asked with careful and curious tone.

"Scary? Well the universe itself is scary enough place. Even if it has wondrous place like Velum most of the universe is empty void that wants nothing more than to kill you. There are many places that a living being would do well not to be aware of but there are few that stand above the rest. The first that comes into mind is the Boötes Void as the humans of the Earth called it. My people called it the Frost," Sakuya said with much more serious look on her face.

"What's that?" Flandre asked and tilted her head a little.

"A super void. An area in space that is almost completely devoid of all matter. It is at least three hundred million light-years in diameter. Within that void are only few stray stars and galaxies. I cannot think any worse fate than to be born onto a planet within that void. The space there is just barely above the absolute zero and when looked at the sky it is completely black. From the void you cannot see the stars or any object in the sky. They're all just too far away. That is the true meaning of lonelyness," Sakuya explained while looking at the stars.

"And then there's the star that is sometimes called as 'the Monster'. It's real name is Hydra's Super Leviathan. A star so massive that it is one fourth of a light-year in diameter. It is so far away from Earth that you cannot see it but I've seen it. Maybe even too close. When you stare at an object so large you start to feel your insignificance in the universe. But there is also other star that has a planet which may be the most brutal place in the universe. The star itself is pretty tiny but it is the brightest star ever discovered. It is simply referred as 'The One'. The star burns so hot that the light it emits can be seen with bare eyes millions of light-years away from it. The reason why it can burn so intensively is that it is located in the middle of a gass cloud and it can absorb more matter as it burns," Sakuya said and glanced at Flandre.

"So what about that planet? What's so bad about that?" Flandre asked with curious look on her face.

"The planet that circles around it is unimaginably close to the star. The only reason why it can stay so close without being blown away by the solar winds is that it circles around its parent so slowly. That planet has no atmosphere and the temperature on its surface can easily reach over million degrees celcius. The solar winds have actually shaped the planet so that it looks more like a frozen comet than a planet. It also is highly radioactive since only the heaviest materials can withstand the immense heat and brightness of its parent star. In short, only one thousandth of a second would be enough to expose you to so much radiation that you would turn into ash in an instant," Sakuya said with grim tone and look on her face. Flandre just stared at her with fascinated look on her face and gulped once.

"Sounds pretty bad," She then simply uttered and took her eyes away from the sky for a moment.

"Is that the worst place in the universe?" Flandre continued and looked at Sakuya.

"No, there's still one more place that I can think of that beats everything when it comes to being terrifying," Sakuya said with even darker tone and look on her face.

"The Black Hole of Verdigris. Also known as the 'Eye of Hell'. It is the biggest and heaviest black hole in the whole universe. Luckily it is at the very edge of the expanding universe, meaning that beyond that there is nothing but darkness. It is so massive that if you were to put it and the Milky Way side by side and then look at the nigth sky from Earth, the Black Hole of Verdigris would block over third of the sky. Imagine, that round monster just gawking at your from millions of light-years away slowly pulling you to it till it devours you whole. I've seen it... only once. I hope I wouldn't have. Staring into its event horizon is the most terryfying experience in my whole life. And because there is no sound in the space it just stands there... as though watching or waiting," Sakuya said with eyes wide open. Flandre could almost feel the fright from Sakuya's voice. Something she had never heard before. She was just about to comment on Sakuya's story when something caught her eye. She stopped to look at this thing. There was something howering above the sea. She squinted her eyes to see what it was. Sakuya soon realized that Flandre had stopped so she stopped too and took a look at Flandre to see why she had stopped. She saw Flandre looking at the sea. She too then looked at the sea while walking towards Flandre. It was then when she saw it too.

"What is that?" Flandre asked while looking at the thing above the plain surface of the sea. Sakuya stopped when she was next to Flandre but didn't respond.

"Is it... a person?" Sakuya finally said while gazing at the distance. Flandre then glanced at Sakuya before waving at the thing in the distance.

"Hey!? Is someone there!?" Flandre yelled from the bottom of her lungs. Sakuya then just looked at Flandre and treid to sush her.

"Stop. We don't know if it is friendly or not," Sakuya said and tried to cover Flandre's mouth but Flandre just pushed Sakuya's hands away.

"There's only one way to find out," Flandre said and kept waving towards the lake and started to jump as well to try and catch the attention of the thing above the lake. Expecting that it indeed was a person like Sakuya had thought.

"Don't, if we're found by an enemy our cover will be blown," Sakuya insisted and tried to get Flandre to stop.

"Huh? What enemy? Why would we need to worry about being attacked if you're familiar with the locals already?" Flandre asked with confused look on her face.

"Well... uhhh, I probably should have told this to you straight away but Lunarians and I aren't... well, in the best of terms," Sakuya said while scratching her hair.

"What? You cannot be serious?" Flandre sighed and facepalmed.

"Aye. Yagokoro allowed me to hide and fix my ship at her place hidden from the other Lunarians. Lunarians are... well they're not the most hospitable when it comes to strangers. I learned that the hard way. When Lunarians found out about me I had to leave immediately. Luckily my ship was in flying condition. Otherwise I would have been executed," Sakuya explained with a bit awkward look on her face.

"Great. So we can say good bye to a peaceful city tour," Flandre bridled and kicked a stone on the ground. They just watched how the stone flew into the distance because of the low gravity. Sakuya then looked back at Flandre.

"Come on, we're taking the very person who is keeping up the barrier around the Lunar Capital. They would never give that person away willingly," Sakuya said to Flandre but Flandre's attention was already elswhere.

"What is it?" Sakuya then asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Look," Flandre said and pointed at the sea where they had seen that floating thing. Well that floating thing was now walking towards them on the surface of the sea.

"Well I'll be damned," Sakuya uttered and just looked at the character walking towards them and leaving small ripples onto the surface of the water. The person was wearing a Chinese outfit of a red and yellow tabard with a red sash over a wide sleeved black dress and a black Phoenix crown. She had a long blonde hair and where ever she stepped some faint purple flames could be seen. Sakuya and Flandre just looked how this woman approached them.

"We should probably prepare ourselves," Sakuya uttered with a bit nervous tone.

"Look at her. Does she show any signs of hostility? Let's just wait and see what she does," Flandre said while staring at the woman who stepped onto the shore.

"I'm just saying that we should be cautious with the residence of the moon," Sakuya said after taking a quick glimpse at Flandre.

"I am not a resident of the moon. And neither are you two. It is rare to find earthlings dwelling onto the surface of this wretched place," The woman said said with cold and emotionless tone and look on her face. She looked at Flandre and Sakuya as though scanning them but at least she didn't attack them immediately.

"How can you be so certain that we're from the Earth?" Flandre asked carefully.

"Your stench of impurity is unmistakable and the only being who live on the moon are the Lunarians. You're not one of them. You couldn't be," The woman replied while retaining that cold tone.

"Oh... right. So who are you then? Are you a Lunarian or...?" Flandre asked but her question was met with a quite angry glare from the woman.

"Names do not have meaning for me. And I certainly am not one of those mockeries. But if you find some peace from knowing who I am, you can refer to me as Junko," Junko retorted with a bit annoyed look on her face.

"Wait, I've heard of you. Few years ago Reimu and few others went to the moon to stop the Lunarians from invading Gensokyo. I overheard them talking about a divine spirit called Junko who was behind all of that," Sakuya said with thoughtful look on her face and rubbed her chin. Flandre looked at Sakuya and then at Junko.

"So, eh... You're something like a goddess?" Flandre asked while shrugging her shoulders.

"If that's what you want to call me then so be it," Junko simply replied while glaring at the two earthlings in front of her.

"So if you're not a Lunarian nor a resident of the moon then what are you doing here? You said yourself that only Lunarians habit this place," Sakuya asked with a bit doubtful look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"I could ask the same question from you two. I really don't have pleasant memories about meeting earthlings," Junko replied while staring into Sakuya's eyes.

"Let's hear your story first," Sakuya simply responded and wasn't going to tell Junko anything before she would tell something.

"The reason why I am here is to finally take my revenge onto Chang'e whose husband was responsible for killing my son and shooting down the nine suns. No matter what it takes. I will wipe out this whole rock if that's what it requires. I wouldn't do this alone but Hecatia, my dear friend who also suffered from Chang'e's actions has more than her fair share of troubles back in Hell now when it's falling apart," Junko said with cold tone and grim look on her face.

"But why take revenge onto her? If her husband was responsible for killing your son then why wont you take revenge on him?" Flandre asked with confused tone.

"Because I already have. It all happened thousands of years ago. I killed her husband as soon as I got the chance but that wasn't enough. I will take everything from her. I will make sure she will suffer. I wont be satisfied before she does. But she has managed to evade me all this time in the protection of the Lunar Capital. If I have to, I will tear that place down. Inch by inch. Life by life," Junko growled between her teeth.

"Wow. This one has a quite grudge. I mean, losing one's son is bad but thousands of years ago? Wouldn't it be time to move on?" Sakuya asked carefully. Junko immediately glared at her.

"Forgiveness is weakness. It means that your enemy has won. I couldn't allow myself to forgive nor forget so I purified myself into an embodiment of rage to always remind me that my work is not yet done. Only after I've destroyed her can I find peace," Junko said and turned her gaze towards the Lunar Capital that could be seen in the distance. Flandre then turned towards Sakuya and signed her to squat a little so she could whisper something to her. Sakuya did as Flandre had signed her to and heard what she had to say.

"I think we shouldn't get onto her way. She doesn't seem to even realize that the reality is falling apart. Let's just get out of here and find the person we're looking for," Flandre said with concerned look on her face.

"I'd agree with you but we might be able to use her to our advantage. It will be hard for us to breach into the Lunar Capital with just the two of us. If we were to team up with her we might have a better chance to pull this off," Sakuya whispered back a Flandre.

"I really don't know about that. Maybe we should just try to do this by ourselves. What if she turns on us?" Flandre insisted and looked at Junko who was still gazing at the Lunar Capital in the distance.

"I really don't believe she would do that. In the end she doesn't seem to like the Lunarians. I personally don't have anything against them but they're not gonna let us into their city easily. Besides if she decides to attack the city while we're in there and unaware it might give us even more trouble. Better get her onto our side to prevent that from happening," Sakuya insisted with thoughtful look on her face.

"*Sigh Okay but I really hope you know what you're doing," Flandre said and sighed deeply. She then simply looked how Sakuya walked up to Junko and tapped her shoulder. Junko turned her gaze away from the capital and towards Sakuya.

"I think we can help each other. Me and her are about to infiltrate into the Lunar Capital. We too have a person we desire to find from there. Although we're not about to kill that person. But I've been thinking about if we should combine our strengths to breach the city together. We all would benefit from that," Sakuya said to the grim looking Junko. Junko stared at Sakuya for a moment and then at Flandre behind her.

"What do you have to gain from breaching the Lunar Capital? So far the earthlings have only stepped between I and the capital to save their own skins," Junko growled while looking at Sakuya and the unsure looking Flandre.

"The barrier around the Lunar Capital, we need the person upholding it since they're also the one behind the barrier around Gensokyo. In short that person is the fourth sage of Gensokyo," Sakuya said with her arms akimbo. Junko looked at her for a moment and then turned away while rubbing her chin.

"Earthlings... I know well enough that they can't be trusted," Junko said with hars tone in her voice without even looking at Sakuya or Flandre.

"I wouldn't trust her either. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that she saved my life I would have slit my knife across her throat as soon as I would have gotten a chance," Sakuya said with surprisingly serious look on her face. Flandre backed away a one step and gulped.

"Then why did you abandon your hatred? If killing her is your desire then why are you here accopanied by her?" Junko asked and took a cold glimpse at Sakuya.

"Because I have no personal hatred towards her. There's nothing I have to forgive. The only reason why I would kill her is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But currently she is the only one capable and willing to protect those... who might not even deserve it... like her own sister," Sakuya said, looked at Flandre and cracked a slight smile. Junko then turned around and looked at Flandre with cold but somehow soothing spark in her eye.

"I wish I could have protected those who needed me... Very well. I accept your offer," Junko said and made a slight nod towards Sakuya and Flandre. Flandre looked at Sakuya and nodded. They then turned towards Junko.

"So if you have battled against Lunarians before then how should we approach this?" Flandre asked.

"I haven't been able to do a proper battle with them even once. I've been overwhelmed each time. I haven't been able to lay even a single finger onto the stones that make up the buildings of that city," Junko said and clenched her fist.

"B- but there are only three of us. What kind of a difference will that make?" Flandre asked with confused and a bit worried look on her face after taking a quick look at the towering buildings of the capital in the distance.

"The difference it'll make is that now my only weakness has been defeated. I am no longer by myself," Junko said, turned around and started heading towards the city.

"What do you mean by that?" Flandre asked and looked how Junko rose from the ground and started floating towards the city in the distance.

"I will explain once we're ready to attack," Junko simply replied. Sakuya and Flandre then looked at each other and followed Junko.

"You mean that we will attack now? Immediately?" Flandre asked carefully and tilted her head.

"Yes. After each failed attempt I have returned to the Sea of Tranquility to maditate, to remember my fury, anger and hatred, to muster my strength for the next attack. I'm now at the peak of my power again... Maybe this time I may finally be able to unleash it," Junko said with emotionless look on her face. Flandre and Sakuya looked at each other one more time while following Junko towards the city.

They walked along to the sea shore. It took them couple of hours to finally reach the hills that surrounded the city from almost every side. All except the sea. They however were not planning to attack from the sea. That wouldn't have been healthy for Flandre so they decided to stay on the ground. As they climbed to the top of the hill Flandre and Sakuya could finally witness the towering skyscrapers of the Lunar Capital in all of their glory. They were towering monolithic structures made from steel and stone. Within them was the capital itself. Flandre could distinguish royal looking buildings, gardens and temples from within the towering skyscrapers. Around the skyscrapers were more casual looking houses. They were forming straight lines that all pointed towards the center of the capital. Around it all was a complicated looking wall. Flandre couldn't tell if it was made form stone, metal of both. All she could tell was that it looked sturdy. But despite all of this the city looked almost deserted. Flandre nor Sakuya could see any movement.

"I can't see anyone. I thought that a city this big would have a bit more... life to it," Flandre uttered with confused look on her face while they looked at the city from on top of the hill they had just climbed.

"They're Lunarians. They loath everything that is beautiful in life, birth, change, death. They call it being pure. I call it ignorant arrogance. They're nothing more than husks of the beings they now call impure. Their city is always like this... But... this time they're simply waiting," Junko said while staring at the sleeping city before them. The city looked almost overpowering now when seen up close. They were looking at the city about three kilometers away from its walls and there were three of them but it still semeed like the city could just stomp onto them at any given moment.

"Waiting for what?" Sakuya asked with serious look on her face.

"Us. They've been keeping their eye on me the whole time I've been on the surface of this rock. They've been keeping their eye on you as well. Nothing can escape their sight here. We have no element of surprise. But we don't need one," Junko said and stared at the city. Flandre could swear that she could see a hint of a grin creeping onto Junko's face when she said her last sentence. She didn't know if it was a good or bad sign.

"So what is the plan?" Sakuya asked and corssed her arms. Junko then turned towards them.

"There is only one threat we have to face and then the city will crumble before us. Watatsuki no Toyohime and Watatsuki no Yorihime. Those two have always prevented me from unleashing my true power at the city. I need time to charge and that gives those two an easy window to obliterate me. That's why I couldn't defeat them by myself. I had to fight them when I wasn't at my full potential. However, I can still handle them even by myself... for a while. If I were to face only one of them... then it I may be able to even win. That's where you two come in," Junko said and stared at Sakuya and Flandre who just looked at each other.

"You two will head down there as soon as I have attracted the attention of the Watatsukis. There is a second barrier around the city. Invisible for the eye currently. But you will notice it as you get closer to it. You have to tear it down. That will attract the attention of at least the other of the sisters. Take her down and I will take the other down. Once they fall the barrier should be no problem. Without the Watatsukis the Lunar Capital will have to go for the offensive. I can handle them all by myself while you charge in and strike where it hurts the most. The Palace of the Lunar Emperor," Junko explained ith determined spark in her eye.

"Why that place specifically?" Flandre asked with a bit curious and confused tone and look on her face.

"Because that's where Chang'e is being held. I do not know who you're looking for but I'd wager that a person of such value would be held at the palace as well," Junko explained and turned her gaze back towards the silent Lunar Capital.

"But you said that they are keeping their eye on us. Doesn't that mean that they know there will be three of us?" Flandre asked with concerned tone and look on her face.

"Yes, but what can they do about it. If they don't defend themselves we will tear the city down anyway. Remember, we're not here for the Watatsukis. We just need to dispose of them to get our hands onto the capital itself," Junko said with cold tone. Sakuya looked at her for a moment and then at Flandre.

"Okay. I and Flandre will take down the barrier and keep the other Watatsuki girl busy while you take care of the other," Sakuya said and nodded to Junko. Flandre nodded too although with not so sure look on her face as on Sakuya's. Junko just nodded back at them and started walking towards the city. Sakuya and Flandre were about to follow when Junko lifted her hand.

"Wait till the battle has started. That'll give you a headstart so you can reach the barrier before the Watatsukis know what hit them," Junko said without even looking at them. Sakuya and Flandre looked at each other and nodded. They just stood there and watched how Junko walked towards the towering city before them. She then lifted herself from the ground and started levitating. Flandre and Sakuya both had to admit that it was a quite intimidating sight to see how Junko just floated towards the city while emitting those slight purple flames.

"She said that she hadn't been able to defeat those two she was talking about but claimed that she could take all other Lunarians on by herself. What do you think it tells about those 'Watatsukis'?" Flandre asked and looked at Sakuya with concerned look on her face.

"I've actually met them. Back when I crashed to the moon Yagokoro told me that the Watatsukis were her students. She said that those two had the most brilliant minds and powers she had ever seen. Back then I didn't know what she mean but when I accompanied your sister on her trip to the moon I saw Yorihime beating everyone of us. That's how powerful she is on her own. And that was solely with your 'danmaku' rules. I'd take her seriously. As for her sister... I've never seen her in battle, so hard to say," Sakuya said with thoughtful look on her face while rubbing her chin. Flandre just looked at her. She was starting to worry even more watched how Junko descended down the hill towards the capital and it didn't take for too long for them to notice two figures emerging from the capital. They were too far away so that Sakuya and Flandre could have distinguished their faces but they could still see them approaching Junko.

"Those are the Watatsukis?" Flandre uttered while looking at the scene before her.

"Aye," Sakuya simply responded with serious look on her face. They stared at the three figures in the distance waiting for something to happen.

"What is she waiting for? Why hasn't she attacked yet?" Flandre asked with stressed tone. She had started to move around impatiently.

"Patience. The Watatsukis must know that we're here. They might suspect that we're onto something," Sakuya simply responded while keeping her eyes on the trio in the distance. It was then when a bright flash could be seen from the direction of those three. The first shot had been fired and the Watatsukis charged at Junko.

"Now is our turn," Sakuya exclaimed and took a quick look at Flandre who seemed almost relieved now when the waiting was over. Both of them then started to run towards the capital while trying to keep their distance to Junko and the Watatsukis so that they would be noticed as late as possible. Flandre could have reached the outernmost barrier of the capital in couple of seconds if she had wanted but she didn't want to leave Sakuya behind so it took them good while to run down the hill and over the plain dust field to finally reach the barrier. Junko had been right. The barrier wasn't visible when looked from far away but now when they were up close they could clearly see a blueish-purple hue creating a wall between them and the outern wall of the capital.

"Just crack it open and be done with it," Sakuya yelled at Flandre while running along side her. Flandre just nodded and picked up her pace. Sakuya saw how Flandre readied her right hand which started to glow with bright orange hue. She then stopped before Flandre could reach the wall so that she wouldn't be too close when Flandre would collide with the barrier. Flandre ran all the way up to the barrier with her fist ready and when she was at the right distance she threw a punch at the barrier with all the momentum she had gained. A deafening bang could be heard when a orange explosion enveloped Flandre and the spot she had hit. Sakuya waited till the explosion had faded and the dust had cleared to see if Flandre had succeeded. But once the dust cleared she only saw Flandre holding her right hand and groaning a little.

"Try again," Sakuya shouted and ran closer to Flandre. Flandre just looked at Sakuya, nodded and turned back towards the barrier. She then charged both of her hands and started throwing punches at the barrier as fast as she could. Sparks were flying as Flandre pummeled the surface of the barrier but the barrier semeed to just absorb all the energy Flandre could throw at it. After Flandre got too tired to continue she backed away from the barrier couple of steps but immediately turned her right side towards the barrier. Sakuya could see how the skin on the right side of Flandre's body turned black and shiny as steel as she charged at the barrier. An eruption of energy was released on the impact which sent Flandre a little bit backwards. She was holding her right shoulder. She then let go of her shoulder and looked at the barrier. It was still perfectly intact.

"It's no use. I can't take it down with brute force. I have to rely on this," Flandre yelled at Sakuya and in a quick gush of fire summoned her black flaming blade. Sakuya just looked how Flandre grabbed her Lävatein from the air and turned back towards the barrier. But it was then when she saw someone approaching them from the direction of Junko. It was one of the Watatsukis. It was Toyohime. She had a long, wavy blonde hair. She was wearing a dark blue dress with a strap on the left over a white long-sleeved blouse, a loose belt with a gold mirror-shaped buckle and a white bonnet with a red ribbon on it. She was flying at them while holding a fan in her hand. She didn't look like she was about to invite them for a tea or anything.

"We've gotten the attention of the other Watatsuki," Sakuya shouted at Flandre who was just about to approach the barrier again.

"Keep her busy while I work on this," Flandre yelled back at her and charged her blade. Sakuya just nodded even though Flandre wasn't looking at her and readied herself by pulling two knives from her coat. Toyohime didn't seem all that impressed by Sakuya and she simply just charged at her by crashing onto the ground where Sakuya had stood. Luckily Sakuya had gotten out of the way. She then looked how two, almost invisible projectiles were shot at her from the middle of the dust cloud Toyohime had created. The only reason she saw them was because of the dust and how it reacted to the airflow. Sakuya managed to dodge the transparent projectiles and just looked how they exploded upon hitting the hills behind them. Sakuya then turned back towards Toyohime who had emerged from the dust cloud and was spinning the fan in her hands. She then made few sweeping motions with the fan that launched two projectiles more at Sakuya. They seemed to bend the air around them. That was the only way Sakuya could tell that they were coming.

"Is she creating blades from wind?" Sakuya muttered to herself after she had managed to dodge those projectiles as well.

"Alright, bring it," Sakuya then shouted at Toyohime, flipped the knives in her hands and charged at the blonde in front of her. Toyohime didn't seem to care too much. She simply started to spin gracefully while launching more and more projectiles from the fan in her hand.

Meanwhile Flandre was ready to give the barrier another go. She had charged her Lävatein that was burning with intense flames, took a steady stance and unleashed the blade's energy all at once at the barrier. For a human eye her movement would have been impossible to follow when she threw a series of slashes and strikes at the barrier at the rate of at least twenty seven cuts per second. After three seconds she stopped to catch her breath and to look at the barrier to see if it had worked. To her surprise there seemed to be a visible crack on that barrier.

"All right we're getting some... where," Flandre started but before she could finish her sentence she saw a blue wave of energy sweeping all across the barrier. After that the crack was gone with any other visible damage that had been done. Flandre then backed away and took a better look at the barrier before her. It seemed like this dome of transparent energy that was surrounding the whole Lunar Capital. But at the very center of the city, on top of the tallest building there semeed to be a mast just about at the right hight for its tip to reach the top of the barrier.

"If that thing can channel energy down here, then I should be able to channel energy up there," Flandre thought to herself, readied her Lävatein again and pointed its tip towards the barrier. She then ran up to the barrier and lunged her blade towards it with all she got. With one swift thrust she could feel the blade sinking deeper into the barrier than it had before. She then looked at the damage she had dealt only to find her blade's tip deep within the barrier. She then looked up and saw how another wave of blue energy swept downwards. It indeed was coming from the tip of that mast. She looked how the wave of energy approached the base of the barrier but now when her blade was embedded in it the wave of energy couldn't fix the damage that had been done. But after the wave of energy had already sweeped across the barrier Flandre saw another being released from the tip of the mast on top of that building.

"Not gonna work," Flandre simply uttered and started to channel her own power into the barrier using her the Lävatein as her own mast. She then released her own wave of energy to the barrier that was heading up instead of down as the blue one. Flandre's red wave climbed up the barrier until it and the blue wave colladed canceling each other in a bright burst of energy.

"Okay, we'll give it a bit more," Flandre growled as she charged her weapon again and readied herself to release another wave of energy. But it was then when one of those wind projectiles that Toyohime was firing hit the barrier next to Flandre. She was lucky that the projectile didn't hit her. She turned around to see what was going on and saw Sakuya trying to evade Toyohime's attacks. Every now and then Sakuya threw a knife at her but she always managed to swipe it away or dodge it with flagrant ease.

"Flandre, I know you have your hands full with the barrier but I could really use some help over here," Sakuya yelled while dodging two of those projectiles Toyohime was firing. Flandre looked Sakuya and then back at the barrier trying to figure out what to do. But once another wave of energy was released from the tip of the mast on top of that building Flandre got an idea. She cancelled the energy she was charging into her blade and simply waited for the wave of energy to reach her Lävatein and her.

"Any time now," Sakuya yelled again. Flandre would have wanted to help sooner but she had to wait for the energy wave. It took about ten seconds until the blue wave finally reached Flandre and her Lävatein and it was at that moment when Flandre suddenly absorbed all the energy the mast had sent down the barrier. She used her Lävatein to siphon all the energy to her. She then turned towards Sakuya and Toyohime with her left hand still clinging to the Lävatein. To her advantage Toyohime was facing away from Flandre so she had no way of knowing what was about to happen. She then pointed her right hand at Toyohime and with one massive burst released all the energy she had absorbed from the tip of her index and middle finger in a lightning-like beam. The beam let out a thundering roar as it left Flandre's hand and struck Toyohime to her back. It looked as though she was being electrocuted as the beam hit her and passed straight through her. Once the beam had worn off Toyohime fell to her knees while breathing heavily. It was then when Flandre finally let go of her sword and charged towards the exhausted Lunarian on the ground. Upon reaching Toyohime she grabbed her by her neck and arms to keep her in place.

"Sakuya, now," Flandre yelled as Toyohime tried to wrench herself free from Flandre grip. Sakuya saw the opportunity and ran towards Toyohime with her knives ready. She was just about to hit when Toyohime suddenly jumped against Flandre who was still clinging to her and kicked Sakuya away. Upon landing Toyohime finally managed to get free by throwing Flandre over her shoulder. She then tried to blast Flandre with one of her projectiles but Flandre managed to spin out of the way. Flandre kicked herself up from the ground and turned towards Toyohime who readied her fan and took a fighting stance. Flandre simply growled a little, covered her face with her arms and charged at Toyohime. Toyohime immediately sent two of those wind projectiles at Flandre but Flandre simply hardened the skin on her arms and when the projectiles hit them they simply exploded on impact as Flandre ram through them. When Flandre was just on the reach she lowered her arms from her face and readied herself to hit Toyohime but because she had covered her face and eyes she hadn't seen what Toyohime had been doing. When Flandre opened her eyes the only thing she saw was Toyohime facing at her with her arms outstretched just before she released one tremendous blast of energy at Flandre that sent her flying backwards dozens of meters. It took Flandre few seconds to come back to her senses but in the end she managed to get herself up from the ground while holding her head. She looked at Toyohime and saw two of them until she cleared her head. Flandre shook her head few times and when she was sure she had recovered her balance she readied herself again. Toyohime did the same but this time Flandre didn't charge at her enemy aimlessly and instead let out a terrible warcry and immediately absorbed a huge charge of energy from her surroundings. She then looked at Toyohime again with her eyes glowing before hitting the ground once sending a shockwave towards Toyhohime that shattered the surface of the moon as it traveled and sent gushes of molten stone upwards. Toyohime dodged the shockwave but Flandre sent another and another and another. Toyohime struggled to dodge them but managed to evade them without scars. But it was then when Flandre stomped the ground which made the cracks on the ground release huge pillars of lava into the sky. Toyohime used her fan to create a gush of wind to protect herself from the molten stone but as she tried to blow it away she saw Flandre charging through the curtain of lava with her claws aimed at Toyohime. She had no time to dodge and Flandre landed a clean punch straight at Toyohime's chest. She was sent bacwards until she hit the barrier behind her. Toyohime simply stared at her enemy as she gathered herself from the ground and spat out a little bit of blood. It was then when Sakuya joined Flandre after she had recovered from Toyohime's kick.

"Did you get her?" Sakuya asked but Flandre didn't respond. She just growled a little and headed towards Toyohime who had finally managed to get back onto her feet.

"Okay it seems you're not done," Sakuya uttered and backed away a little before Flandre suddenly started running towards Toyohime. Toyohime was holding her head and looking down so it seemed that Flandre would blow her away with ease but just before Flandre could reach her Toyohime suddenly dashed out of the way and as Flandre charged past her she gave a sharp and powerful punch to the back of Flandre neck sending her flying face first to the ground. After that Sakuya joined the battle by throwing few knives at Toyohime but she simply grabbed them from mid air with her fan and threw them back at Sakuya who was lucky to dodge them. She then turned towards Flandre who had just stood up from the ground and was just about to turn her gaze back at Toyohime but she had already made an upper cut with her fan and sent a projectile at Flandre. The projectiles was fast and nearly invisible so Flandre had no way of dodging and was blown clear by the projectile that hit her straight to her chest, exploded and sent her flying at the barrier. Flandre fell to the ground unconscious.

Flandre had no idea for how long she had been unconscious but when she finally came back to her senses she could still hear the explosins around her even if her ears were still ringing. Her vision was a bit blurry but it didn't take her long to distinguish the quickly moving figure of Toyohime and Sakuya.

"Gahh," Flandre groaned as she held her head and started to stand up even though she wasn't feeling very well. The blast she had taken from Toyohime's fan had taken its toll on Flandre. But despite that she managed to get onto her feet. Flandre shook her head to clear her vision. When she finally could see properly she saw Sakuya evading Toyohime. Sakuya seemed pretty exhausted by the looks of things but so did Toyohime. Toyohime had few knives pointing from her feet and side but that didn't seem to stop her. Sakuya had few bruises all around her body but she was still managing to keep up with Toyohime. Flandre then tried to rejoin the battle but she fell to her knees when she tried to take a step.

"Crap, I aint battling anyone in this condition," Flandre muttered to herself with exhausted look on her face.

"But I can't back away now. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this," Flandre muttered and lifted her gaze from the ground. She locked her eyes to Toyohime as she chased Sakuya while firing her projectiles at her. She then lifted her right hand and pointed it at Toyohime. After a few seconds a small blue glowing sphere appeared into Flandre's palm. Toyohime seemed to wince a little when this happened. She slowed down and stopped chasing Sakuya. She then slowly turned towards Flandre. Toyohime just stared at Flandre with a mix of exhaustion and fright. She then brought her hand to her chest and looked at herself.

"Sorry that it had to come to this," Flandre simply uttered and squeezed the sphere on her hand until it shattered to pieces. Toyohime simply winced again, gasped once and fell to the ground with her eyes wide open. Sakuya was following the scene from a safe distance away. She just looked at Toyohime's corpse on the ground for a good ten seconds before she finally allowed herself to drop to her knees and catch her breath.

"Alright... *pant That was a close one... *pant," Sakuya said between her breaths while looking at Flandre. She too was on the ground on her knees and breathing heavily. Sakuya just nodded at Flandre but Flandre simply looked away. She then happened to lay her eyes to Junko and Yorihime who were battling in the distance.

Yorihime had a light blue hair tied to a ponytail with ayellow ribbon. She was wearing a dark red dress with a strap on the right over a white short sleeved blouse, and a loose belt with a gold sword-shaped buckle. It seemd like her outfit had been damaged quite lot as a result of their battle. It was also seemed to be stuck in a stale mate. Junko was charging at Yorihime constantly while firing lasers and massive bullets at her while Yorihime was dodging all of it by blocking them with her sword or by jumping out of the way. That was until Yorihime layed her eyes to the other battlefield where her sister had fought against Flandre and Sakuya. She had realized that the other battle had become awfully quiet and Toyohime hadn't returned to help her so she was becomeing worried about what had happened and when she saw the other battlefield her worries came true.

"TOYOHIME," Yorihime simply yelled when she saw her sister laying on the ground but this gave Junko an opportunity to finally get her hands onto Yorihime. Yorihime was just about to ran to her sister but stopped immediately when Junko managed to grab the back of her neck. Yorihime's eyes bursted wide open, she dropped the sword from her hand and froze like a statue. Then her skin started to turn grey and rough as stone. First her head then it spread over her whole body. It finally stopped once even the tip of her hair was turned to stone. Junko simply smirked while still holding onto the back of Yorihime's neck. And when she finally let go Yorihime's body turned into dust before their very eyes and all of it fell to the ground forming just a small grey pile of ash-like substance. Flandre and Sakuya looked at Junko for a moment after she was done with Yorihime.

"We better get that barrier down now," Flandre then uttered and looked at Sakuya. Sakuya simply nodded as she watched how Flandre pushed herself from the ground and headed to the Lävatein that was still stuck in the barrier. Sakuya then layed her eyes back to the city and saw that there was now much more movement than before. It seemed that now when Watatsukis were defeated the Lunarians had started to gather their forces and were ready to attack. There were hundreds upon hundreds of Lunarians ready to attack from the sky and at least the same amount, if not even more Moon Rabbits ready to attack from the ground level. All of them were simply waiting for the barrier to finally fall so they could attack. But strangely enough all of their glares were fixed onto Junko who just stared back at them. Sakuya looked at it for a while until she saw Junko taking off and backing away from the barrier all the way to the hill where they had first come from. Sakuya watched how Junko descended near the ground level but didn't land. She then started to almost like glow with those purple flames she had emmited this whole time until she suddenly opened a giant spectral purple fan onto her back. It looked exactly like what Yuyuko sometimes used but this one was way larger. Junko was clearly preparing for something. Sakuya then looked back at Flandre who had already reached her Lävatein and was currently holding it tightly.

"Okay barrier, you're about to go down," Flandre groaned as she clenched her hands around the hilt even tighter and started to glow with red hues. Sakuya could simply observe in awe as Flandre released a deep red wave of energy to the parrier from her blade.

"Woah," Sakuya simply uttered as she saw the wave climbing up towards the top simply absorbing every wave of energy the mast tried to send down. It didn't take even ten seconds before the wave sent by Flandre had covered almost the whole barrier and had reached the top. Flandre then grabbed her blade even tighter and gave it a sharp push which released one final pulse of energy that sent the wave all the way up to the mast and once it reached it Sakuya saw few red sparks flying from it before it blew up into thousands of pieces. The barrier flickered a bit at first but when Flandre pulled the Lävatein free the barrier faded from their field of view and ceased to exist. Flandre and Sakuya just stared at the city before them for the next few eerily silent seconds before they heard a loud warcry from within the city and saw thousands upon thousands of Lunarians and Moon Rabbits charging out from the city, all headed towards Junko who was still floating on the slope of that hill. Flandre had to admit that she had never seen so large group of humans or youkai in a single group ever before.

"What is she doing!?" Flandre then yelled and pointed at Junko who still wasn't doing anything as the army approached her.

"I don't know but we should probably get into the city before they turn their attention to us," Sakuya yelled back at Flandre and was about to start running towards the city and the wall when a sudden red glow made her to stop. It came from Junko's direction. Few seconds later the sound waves reached them and they could hear the thundering orchestra of Junko's unbelievably violent barrage of red bullets. Flandre was frozen in place as she saw the humongous red bullets leaving Junko's spectral fan with such speed that they looked more like red stripes as they flew across the air and obliterated every last Lunarian and Moon Rabbit they hit or were around the explosion radius. Those bullets that didn't hit the enemy and flew past them hit the buildings within the city and it didn't take more than just five seconds till the first skyscraper started to collapse from the force of Junko's barrage.

"Come on! We can't stand here gawking," Sakuya yelled at Flandre who was finally snapped out from her amazement and shock, nodded at Sakuya and ran after her as she approached the wall surrounding the Lunar Capital. Sakuya was just about to climb over the wall but before she could even try to make the first leap she saw Flandre simply charging through the wall blasting a fairly big hole into it with ease.

"Well that works too I guess," Sakuya simply uttered and followed Flandre through the hole in the wall. Behind the wall they saw the chaotic looking Lunar Capital waiting for them. Moon Rabbits and Lunarians were all over the place all charging around without an apparent goal. Junko's barrage had surely done its job and when they looked up to the sky they could tell that it wasn't over since the red projectiles were still hammering the buildings above them.

"Okay the Palace of the Lunar Emperor, where is i-," Sakuya started but her sentence was cut short by Flandre who screamed, "LOOK OUT!" She dashed towards Sakuya and pushed her away before the falling rubble from one of the collapsing skyscrapers could hit them.

"Shit! Let's not stay in one place for too long," Sakuya simply uttered as she watched how the skyscraper fell slowly on top of other smaller buildings crushing everything in the process. Flandre simply stood up, nodded at Sakuya and helped her to get up. They then simply started running through the collapsing city towards the center of it because that was the most likely place where they'd find the palace. They had thought that they'd get some major resistance from the locals but as they ventured deeper and deeper to the city they were surprised to see that most of the Lunarians and Moon Rabbits didn't seme to care what they were doing. The chaos had erupted and everyone was just running for their lives. Few Lunarians attacked them every now and them but those lone wolfs were easy to dispose of.

Junko was still hammering the city wnhen they finally saw what looked like a pretty important looking palace. It was built onto a hill which lifted it higher than the most other buildings even though it wasn't quite tall. But it was still pretty massive.

"Okay, that's our goal," Sakuya yelled with her eyes fixed to the palace. The building wa surrounded by gardens and other not so tall building so it hadn't suffered from the collapsing skyscrapers that much. The amount of Lunarians and rabbits had decreased the further in they got but they couldn't top to wonder about the reason for that because the chaos was still raging in the city. But then suddenly they heard a massive explosion from behind them. It came pretty high up. They slowed down, turned around and looked up to see what had happened. They saw a figure being blasted through one of those skyscrapers by the force of explsion created by one of Junko's missiles. The figure tore a hole to the skyscraper which sent rubble flying all over the place and ended up causing the building to collapse to the ground. They watched how the figure flew few hundred meters before falling to the ground accompanied by a pretty impressive crash.

"Poor fool," Sakuya simply uttered and was just about to continue the run when she saw Flandre approaching the crash scene.

"What are you doing? Come on," Sakuya yelled at Flandre but Flandre signed her to wait a little bit. There was movement in the middle of the dust cloud that had risen from the ground after the figure had crashed to the ground.

"This one's alive," Flandre said and walked closer. Sakuya just sighed and ran up to Flandre who was inspecting the crash site a bit closer. From within the dust cloud crawled a Lunarian. The Lunarian was badly damaged. She had a semi-short grey hair with a braid on the back and single badly torn wing on her back. She was wearing a purple dress, the bottom of which was cut to an arrow pattern, with a red microphone bowtie and a tan jacket. The Lunarian crawled out from the dust and looked at Flandre and Sakuya before her.

"You... *pant Why have done this...?" The Lunarian managed to utter with exhausted and pleading look on her face.

"None of your concern," Sakuya simply retorted, turned around and headed towards the palace. Flandre on the other hand stayed there for a little longer.

"The universe is falling apart. I need to find the one upholding the barrier," Flandre simply said while staring coldly at the Lunarian.

"The universe... is doomed. The sage... *cough is locked up in the palace. *cough You'll never get to her... *pant You will not prevail," The Lunarian growled from between her teeth while looking Flandre dead in the eyes. Flandre simply frowned at the Lunarian, turned around and left her to her fate without looking back. Flandre ran to Sakuya who was approaching the palace with a bit sceptical look on her face.

"I don't like the look of this. This place seems too quiet," Sakuya said as they stormed through the gates of the wall that surrounded the palace and the gardens.

"Where is everybody? You'd think that if they have something as important as the Lunar Emperor and the one upholding the barrier here they'd try to protect it," Sakuya continued as she slowed down a bit to look around. The garden was at least three times bigger than the one that used to surround the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It also had plants that had gone extinct a long ago on the Earth but most of the plants were peach trees. The Lunarians really seemed to like peaches.

"Okay we head in there, grab what we came for and get out of here," Flandre said while they ran through the garden.

"Aye, though we might want to get out of Junko's way before she gets here and starts pounding that Chang'e or whoever it was she was after," Sakuya responded and made an unamused laughter. Flandre just nodded as they started to climb up the stairs leading to the palace. The palace was made of marble, gold and jade. All and all it was fit for an emperor that supposedly lived there. It resembled somewhat the Buddhist temple back in Gensokyo although this one was maybe fifty time bigger if not more. But they had little time for sightseeing for once they were done with the stairs they headed straight for the main door which was huge to say the least.

"You think you can handle that?" Sakuya asked while referring to the door. Flandre simply looked back at her and nodded. Sakuya slowed down and simply looked how Flandre ran up to the door and once she reached it she kicked it clear from its hinges. Sakuya looked how the door flew into the pretty dark looking palace but before she could say or do anything a group of soldiers charged out from the palace with their spears pointed at Flandre. Flandre simply yelped, summoned her Lävatein again and dashed up into the air in a blast of fire that took few of the soldiers out. Sakuya simply looked at the soldiers who were recovering themselves from the blast as more of them started pouring out from the palace.

"They're all waiting inside the palace! We need to figure out another way to get it," Sakuya yelled at Flandre who was flying about five meters above the soldiers. She then turned her gaze back at Sakuya and flew to her. Strangely enough the soldiers didn't go further from the door. They simply backed away inside to the palace. They knew that their defence would be just scattered if they were to go out so to protect the palace they stayed in with their spears pointed out and projectiles ready to be fired.

"Damnit! They do guard the place in the end," Flandre said as she descended to the ground beside Sakuya. Sakuya just looked at the scene before them with serious look on her face and rubbing her chin. The soldiers stared back at them from within the palace. Sakuya then decided to look around a little while trying to figure out what to do next. She happened to spot the fairly tall towers around the palace. They were nothing when compared to the skyscrapers of the city but they were still pretty tall. Taller than the palace at least. Tall enough to crash on top of the palace if they were to collapse.

"Flandre, do you think you could make two of those towers collapse and crush the ceiling of the palace? It would give us a new path into it and hopefully dispose a large number of soldiers within the palace," Sakuya said and pointed at the the two towers closest to the palace. Flandre looked at them for a moment and then nodded.

"I think I could make that happen," Flandre said and smirked a little. She then took flight again and headed for the first tower. Sakuya on the other hand backed away a little just to be safe. She watched how Flandre flew towards the other tower with increasing speed. It almost looked like she was about to crash to the base of the tower.

"No, she wouldn't," Sakuya simply uttered as she watched how Flandre flew closer and closer to the tower with faster and faster speed until she actually crashed to the base of the tower. Rubble was flying everywhere as Flandre took a chunk of the tower with her while passing though the tower.

"Okay, she would," Sakuya said with a bit impressed tone and look on her face while watching how Flandre reappeared on the other side of the tower, flew upwards beside it as it started to collapse. Once high enough Flandre struck the tower with her bare hands and that was enough to tip it just a little bit so it would start to fall towards the palace. The tower started to fall down but Flandre didn't sit idly by and watch it happen. She flew straight to the next one but Sakuya could help bu stare at the sight. The tower came crashing down straigth on top of the palace taking a huge chun of ceiling and walls with it as it chewed through the palace. It was then when she heard another sound of deafening cracking and crumbling as Flandre was done with the other tower and now that too was falling onto the palace. It created at least as big, if not even bigger hole to the walls and ceiling of the palace as it crashed on top of it.

"Nice one," Sakuya yelled at Flandre who was hovering a little bit above her. Flandre then simply signed her to follow as she flww towards the hole created by the second tower. Sakuya ran after Flandre. She climbed on top of the rubble the tower was now reduced into and ran on top of it until she had reached the hole it had created to the walls of the palace. Flandre finally landed beside her before entering the palace.

"Okay. We should find the person we're looking for somewhere within this place," Sakuya simply said and jumped down from the rubble and onto the floor of the palace which was now completely wrecked. There were few of those soldiers laying around. Most of them were dead but some of them were still writhing and gasping on the floor. Flandre followed Sakuya and looked at the destruction she had caused.

"M- maybe we should have thought of some other way to do this," Flandre said with almost terrified tone and look on her face.

"Forget about them. We would have needed to face them sooner or later if we had started to think of alternatives. Better this way," Sakuya uttered before she started running further into the dark palace. Flandre looked at the bodies and rubble for a few seconds more before running after Sakuya. After reaching her they started running blindly around the palace trying to find something that would tell them where to head. In fact they had no idea what they were even looking for. They were just hoping to blindly stumble to a room or hall where they'd meet that person they were searching for. This continued for about ten minutes before the needed to stop to catch their breath.

"Crap... This isn't working nearly as well as I had hoped that it would," Sakuya simply groaned while leaning against her knees.

"Tell me about it," Flandre simply responded while looking around herself.

"If I were to be sage of Gensokyo and I would be locked up in the Palace of the Lunar Emperor, where would I be," Flandre muttered while looking around the dark corridor where they had stopped for a moment.

"Locked up? What makes you think she's locked up?" Sakuya then asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Huh? Well the Lunarian from the earlier said that the sage is locked up in this palace," Flandre said and shrugged her shoulders.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? We've been doing this the wrong way. Where do you put stuff that you don't want to escape or the others to find?" Sakuya asked with allusive grin on her face.

"Underground," Both of them uttered at the same time.

"What do you bet that if we head down we will find what we're looking for," Sakuya said and stood up straigth again.

"Then let's not waste any more time. Let's head down and get what we came for," Flandre simply said and headed deeper into the palace. Sakuya followed after her. They once again started running around the palace but this time they took the each staircase that they could find and would take them downwards. It actually continued for quite long time. The palace seemed like it was built more underground than above ground. The staircases just seemed to continue and continue but after dozens of minutes of running down the staircases they finally saw one that was lit with lamps.

"Seems important," Flandre simply uttered after they had stopped next to the lit staircase that seemed to lead them even further down but this time they could clearly see that the staircase wasn't too long since they could see the floor to which it ended.

"Let's be careful. We don't know what we'll find in there," Sakuya said as they started descending carefully towards the lit area. Just when they were about halfway done with this staircase a soldier dashed out with his spear aimed at them. It was a surprise attack but since they were far away enough Sakuya had more than enough time to react. The soldier ran up the stairs and tried to ram the spear into her chest but she simply stepped aside, grabbed the rod of the spear, rammed its back to the stomach of the soldier and wrenched the spear out of the soldier's hands. The soldier fell down the stairs, Sakuya ran after him but stopped before reaching the floor level. She was just in time to dodge another spear that was swung at her from behind the corner. Sakuya ducked under the attack, stood up and blocked another attack by the same soldier who had attacked her from behind the corner. The both of the tried to wrench the opponents weapon out of their hands for a few seconds until Flandre stepped between the two by tackling the soldier with such a force that he was sent flying backwards until he hit the back wall of the room in which they were. The soldier was easily knocked out. Sakuya then turned around and hit the face of the soldier who was laying on the ground with the back of the spear she had taken from him. The soldier fell unconsciouss and Flandre and Sakuya could sigh for a relief.

"Okay, let's hope that there are no more nasty surprises," Sakuya said and threw the spear to the corner of the room. It was then when they finally had enough time to look around.

"Where are we? What is this place?" Flandre asked out loud while looking around the pretty well lit room. The room was mainly white and pretty large. The backwall though looked a bit different. It actually looked like the facade of a shrine or something similiar with paper walls, red pillars and a door that looked like it was supposed to slide away. In the middle of the room there was a some sort of a control panel that resembled the one that was back in Sakuya's ship.

"Seems odd. Let's see if we can get past that door on the back wall," Sakuya said as she walked a bit closer to it.

"Doesn't seem too tough," Flandre said with confident look on her face as she approached the odd looking backwall and the door. She then grabbed the handle of that door and tried to pull it open but oddly enough it didn't budge. She then tried with the both of her hands but the door stayed shut. Flandre then approached the paper wall and tried to tear her way through them but she could not rip the paper no matter how hard she tried. She then turned towards Sakuya and simply shrugged her shoulders with confused look on her face.

"I can't get through it. It is as if it is protected by something," Flandre said while looking at Sakuya. Sakuya looked at the wall for a moment with thoughtful look on her face and then at the control panel. She then approached it to take a better look at it.

"Let's see what this does," Sakuya said and started pressing buttons on the control panel. Flandre just looked at her trying to get the control panel to do something until a hologram popped up above the console. Sakuya looked at it for a moment as though reading something.

"Flandre, seems like we hit the jackpot. This seems to be a prison for someone called 'Jouga'. I have no idea who that is but there's chance the she is the one we're looking for," Sakuya said while scimming through the text on the hologram.

"Well it's worth a try at least. Can you get this thing open," Flandre asked and thouched the wall behind her.

"I'll try. I'm not familiar with Lunarian technology but it shouldn't be that complicated," Sakuya said and started pressing the buttons on the control panel again. Flandre simply looked at her for a moment. She then looked at the wall again and started walking around the room while waiting for Sakuya to get the door open. It seemed strange that a prison would have a wall like that. Flandre had no idea what purpose it could serve. Why make the prison facade look like a shrine? A pretty poor choice on Flandre's opinion.

"Okay, seems like I'm getting somewhere. It shouldn't take took long till I manage to crack the system," Flandre heard Sakuya saying while she was still looking at the strange wall.

"Great. Let's see who's in th-," Flandre started but her sentence was cut short by a sudden yelp from behind her. She turned around only to find some old looking man who had shoved a spear through Sakuya's back and out from her chest. Sakuya was leaning against the console with blood dripping form her chest and mouth with shocked look on her face. The man then pulled his spear out and Sakuya almost fell to her knees but managed to keep herself up even though just barely. Flandre stared at the scene for few seconds with shocked look on her face.

"No... You... I'll kill you," Flandre then uttered while staring at the old man behind Sakuya. The man was wearing a green, gold, white and black long sleeved royal looking robe. He had long gray hair that was tied to a bun on top of his haid. He also had a long beard. He stared back at Flandre with serious look on his face.

"You've come far but this is where you'll be stopped," The man growled at Flandre who didn't seem to care as she summoned her Lävatein once again. Flandre grabbed the blade and pointed it at the old man who she assumed to be the Lunar Emperor. The man just took a stance with his spear and readied himself. Flandre simply let out a piercing warcry as she jumped across the room towards the man. The man simply pointed his spear at Flandre. It seemed that Flandre would simply hit the spear from mid air and she did. But instead of the spear piercing her skin the spear shattered to pieces upon coming to contact with Flandre's skin that had turned black as she had dashed towards the old man. The man had no time to dodge as Flandre rammed through the the spear and pressed the man against the wall. She then grabbed the man from his robes and lifted him up from the ground. The man tried to struggle free from Flandre's grip but Flandre's strength was far greater than the one of the Lunar Emperor's. The man the tried to blast Flandre away by shooting few projectiles at her face but Flandre simply hardened her skin again so the projectiles did next to nothing to her. She then lifted her Lävatein and readied herself to strike the emperor down and she would have done so if it wasn't for something or someone bursting into the room from the staircase with such a force that it ripped the emperor out of Flandre's grip.

Flandre gathered herself up from the floor and was ready to attack whoever had just stormed into the room but was surprised to see Junko standing between her and the emperor. The emperor too was gathering himself form the ground but almost fell back to the ground from fright after seeing Junko's furious face staring at him. She then looked at Sakuya who was still clinging to the control panel and trying to get the prison door open even though she was badly injured. She then looked back at Junko who was approaching the emperor with menacing look on her face. The emperor tried to back away but wa stopped as soon has he hit the wall behind him.

"Please, no, stay back. You don't know what you're about to do," The emperor almost shouted as Junko approached him with her arm pointed towards his head.

"Oh I'm well aware what I'm doing, Tsukuyomi. I'm erasing every last one who stands between me and my revenge," Junko hissed at the Lunar Emperor and finally grabbed his forehead turning first his head into stone and then the rest of his body just like she had done with Yorihime. After the emperor had been turned into stone completely Junko let go of him and in that same instant the Lunar Emperor crumbled to dust before their very eyes.

"H-how do you do that?" Flandre finally managed to ask with a bit shocked and surprised look on her face.

"I purified his whole body into minerals," Junko simpy responded and turned towards the backwall of the room they were in with almost enthusiastic look on her face.

"Finally...," Junko simply uttered as she started approaching the wall. Flandre then turned her gaze towards Sakuya and rushed to help her to stand up. She was still trying to get the prison door open. She wasn't in the best of conditions which was apparent by the painstaking look on her face. Flandre grabbed her waist and shoulder to keep her up.

"Are you hurt badly? You're bleeding hard," Flandre asked with concerned look on her face. There was still blood dripping from Sakuya's chest and mouth.

"I've been better but also been worse. I can handle this," Sakuya groaned witha sarcastic grin on her face as she pressed few more buttons and flipped a switch on the control panel.

"Okay, let's hope that this was the right one," Sakuya said and lifted her gaze from the console and looked at the back wall. The door on the wall budged a little at first before starting to slide away from the doorway. Sakuya and Flandre were both almost holding their breaths while waiting to see who they would find behind that door. Junko on the other hand approached the door with enthused look on her face.

As the door slided away a dark room was revealed behind it, in the middle of it was a something that looked like a matress and on top of it was sitting a female person. She had really long brown hair. Few hair ornaments attached to her hair and was wearing a blue and white kimono-like robes. As the door slided open and the light got into the room the woman in the room opened her eyes and looked who had opened her prison. At first she stared at Sakuya and Flandre who simply looked back at her like waiting for a reaction from her and then she switched her gaze towards Junko who seemed like she had frozen. But strangely enough the look on this woman's face didn't even waver while she scanned the room in front of her. After a moment she stood up from her mattress, looked at them again and simply uttered, "I see." Her voice was calm and there wasn't even a hint of fear, joy, surprise or fear. It was then when Junko started approaching this woman. The woman then turned her gaze towards her.

"Junko...," The woman simply uttered and inhaled. At first it looked like that she was about to say something but before she could do anything else Junko unleashed a powerful red beam straight at the woman. And then another, and then another and another. After the fourth beam Flandre had recovered from the initial shock of Junko attacking this woman. She put Sakuya down and rushed towards Junko.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Flandre yelled and pushed Junko's hand away before she could fire the fifth beam at the woman. Junko's final beam hit the wall but she didn't seem to care. She pointed her palms again at the woman and it seemed like she was about to continue her attacks but she suddenly cancelled the spell she had been charging. Flandre just saw how Junko was staring at the spot where the woman had been with furious, almost crazy look on her face. It was then when Flandre looked back at the spot where the woman had been only to find out that she had been completely blown away. There was basically nothing left of her. Junko had destroyed her before Flandre had even a chance to interract with her. Flandre then turned back towards Junko with unbelieving look on her face.

"What have you done? Why the hell did you do that!?" Flandre yelled at Junko who didn't seem to care. Flandre was really close to losing herself and attacking Junko but seeing how Junko suddenly pointed her palms back at the spot where the woman had stood made Flandre to stop and turn around again. When she saw how the woman's body was reforming right before their eyes she backed away a little in shock.

"N-no way," Flandre uttered in amazement. She had seen this kinds of regenerations before with Mokou and she knew that Kaguya was capable of doing it too but she hadn't expected to run into a hourai immortal so suddenly. Once the woman had regenerated completely she looked back at Junko with the same emotionless look on her face.

"Have you gotten your fill?" The woman asked but her question was met only with a terrible scream from Junko and a barrage of projectiles flung at her. This time however she didn't just let them hit her. She pointed her hand at Junko but instead of shooting anything she created a barrier that stopped everything Junko threw at her. Flandre backed away as Junko kept pummeling the barrier the woman had cast but with no results. Ultimately Junko gave up on firing bullets at the woman and instead she charged towards her and grabbed her throat with her both hands. Flandre looked how at first it seemed that junko would turn the woman into rock like she had done to Yorihime and the Lunar Emperor but it seemed that Junko was unable to do so. The skin on the woman's neck where Junko was strangling her turned gray but it wasn't able to spread any further.

"WHY WONT YOU DIE!?" Junko finally screamed out loud, let go of the woman's neck and let her head fall to the woman's chest with her arms still wrapped around her shoulders. Flandre hadn't expected this but Junko started crying all of a sudden. If she hadn't seen how Junko acted seconds before she would have thought that the two were friends. Junko was just so tired that realizing she could kill this woman even if she wanted to do so really badly shattered her completely. Flandre finally dared to approach the two while looking how the woman gently patted Junko's head with still that emotionless look on her face.

"Just who are you?" Flandre finally managed to ask while looking at the two. The woman finally looked at Flandre without changing the look on her face.

"You tell me. You're the ones who came to to free me... or kill me. It is pretty much the same thing at this point. But I suppose I still owe you a debt of grattitude," The woman uttered while patting crying Junko to her head.

"No, no, we aren't here to kill you. We just didn't think that the one who created the barrier and Chang'e would be the same person," Flandre corrected the woman's statement.

"Chang'e... is that what they call me these days. There are many names people have called me like Jouga but Chang'e is the newest. I guess I was long in there... too long. It seems my real name has been lost to the bages of history," The woman uttered and looked back into her prison.

"Speaking of which, why did the Lunarians keep you in there?" Flandre asked with curious look on her face.

"You can't tell just by looking at the two of us? I'm the only one capable of creating a protective barrier around the Lunar capital. Not even the great Yakogoro could. So to make sure I'd stay in the capital they locked me in there but knowing that Junko was after me they made me drink the Hourai elixir to make sure that no matter what happened the barrier would stay up. I was also the one upholding the barrier around the city. I felt you breaking it. Impressive," The woman said while looking at Flandre.

"So you truly are the fourth sage of Gensokyo. This is wonderful news. Come we have to get you back to Earth in this instant," Flandre said with much more enthuse tone.

"Gensokyo... yeah, I've heard of that... But sages? I have no idea what you're talking about," The woman responded and Flandre could swear that she heard a hint of amusement from the tone of her voice.

"Well cosidering that you've been here for god knows how long it isn't a surprise but we really need you back on Earth. Do you even know what is going on outside of this little barrier?" Flandre asked from the woman.

"The great rupture of time and space that will end it all in a great cataclysm. Yes, I'm aware of that and I've had my hands full in keeping it outside the barrier and so far I've been somewhat succesful," The woman replied with emotionless tone and look on her face.

"Why have you protected the Lunarians from it if they kept you locked up in here?" Flandre asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Because that same barrier protects your precious Gensokyo as well. I thought you'd understand that much if you came so far as to get me," The woman replied with a hint of harshness in her tone.

"So back to the initial question. Will you help us? We need you back on Earth. Gensokyo is starting to shatter. And no I don't need to hear your reasons for why it is futile and how we're all doomed. I also don't want to hear any false promises to make me feel better. I just want to give everything I have to try and set things right. I don't want to sit idly by and watch the world crumble around myself knowing that I... that I'm responsible for all of it," Flandre said and stared the woman into her eyes. The woman looked back at Flandre with almost impressed look on her face. She hadn't heard such honesty in a long time.

"Don't mistake me. You think I'd stay here now when I finally am able to leave? Of course not. I would come with you but look at me. I'm sure you've noticed a problem," The woman said while looking at Flandre. At first Flandre didn't understand what she meant but when she laid her eyes onto Junko she understood. Junko had lifted her head from the woman's chest and was glaring at her with her eyes bleary from tears and hate. Junko was once again cluthing the woman's throat with her hands.

"I will kill you. No matter what it takes, no matter how many time I will have to do it, I will find a way to kill you," Junko growled while staring at the woman she hated so deeply. The woman just looked back at her without changing the look on her face.

"I'm sorry for your son. But what happened was beyond my control and wasn't what I wanted. You just have to learn to let go," The woman uttered and grabbed Junko's hand that was clutching her thoat.

"I don't give damn about what you want. Only thing I want is to see you dead," Junko growled and tried to lift the woman from the ground but she couldn't. The woman was surprisingly strong. Flandre then approached them again to get Junko to stop.

"Junko, stop it already. I understand your grief but you have to understand when to stand down," Flandre insisted but Junko just glared at her with hateful look on her face.

"Stand down? Stand down!? I have waited thousands of years for this moment and I will get my revenge no matter the cost. I will fulfill my prupose," Junko growled from between her teeth to Flandre who just looked at her with her arms akimbo.

"You prupose? If your purpose is to kill her then what will you become when she is dead?" Flandre asked with doubtful tone and tilted her head.

"I will finally achieve peace," Junko retorted but Flandre just sighed.

"You wont. I know how it feels, to finally get a chance to take a revenge at someone. The thrill, the joy, the ecstacy but once you realize that you achieve nothing by taking your revenge you realize how meaningless your desire was in the first place," Flandre insisted and stared Junko deep into her eyes.

"Your only goal in life is to avenge your son. Once that is done you wont achieve peace. You will cease to be," Flandre said with serious look on her face but Junko responded with a simple growl and turned her gaze back towards the woman.

"Junko, I'm sorry but I cannot die. No matter how much you want it. I'm also sorry for your son. I didn't want any of it to happen. That was completely opposite of what I wanted but my husband... Houyi... he was beyond my control," The woman said while looking deep into Junko's wavering eyes.

"SILENCE," Junko screamed at her face but the woman just sighed and continued, "Our marriage was not by any means my desire. It was purely political. A woman who had just become a goddess must marry a human hero and he was chosen to be my husband," The woman said with emotionless look on her face.

"Your unwillingness doesn't make you any less guilty," Junko growled back at her.

"I know, I know, I just wanted you to know that I don't approve of what he's done. If there would be a chance I would bring your son back but there isn't," The woman said and stared deep into junko's eyes. At first it looked like Junko was about to shoot her immediately but suddenly she sighed, let go of the woman and fell to the ground to all fours.

"During all of my life I've only been losing those close to me. Everything has been taken from me. And now when even my very final goal in life has been shattered what do I have left?" Junko uttered while staring at the ground and clench her fists.

"I-I'm sorry for you, I truly am but I cannot help you," The woman said and looked at Junko on the ground.

"I really wouldn't want to interrupt your little moment there but we really should get going. Who knows how soon this place will come crashing down," Sakuya suddenly said from the back of the room. Flandre then looked at her and saw her standing fine.

"Y-you can stand? Are you sure you're okay?" Flandre asked with concerned tone and look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll manage. Come on we really need to leave," Sakuya said and signed them to come already. And now when Flandre finally paid a bit more attention she too realized that the ground was shaking a little. The city above them was collapsing piece by piece.

"Come we're leaving," Flandre said and looked at the woman and Junko. The woman just nodded and walked up to Sakuya at the back of the room. Flandre was just about to join them when she happened to look behind herself and saw Junko still on the ground.

"I think you should come too. At least get out of the palace before it collapses too," Flandre said with compassionate tone but Junko just lifted her gaze from the ground and stared at Flandre with teary and almost furious eyes.

"I am ready to lay down and die. I'm better off that way. There's nothing for me anymore," Junko almost screamed. Flandre couldn't tell if she was angry, just crying or both.

"Come on, you just can't lay down and let yourself die here," Flandre insisted and looked at desperate looking Jonko.

"What is there to me in this world anymore?" Junko cried out and stared Flandre into her eyes. Flandre was about to respond but she couldn't, she could't come up with anything to calm Junko down. But it was then when she saw the woman Junko had tried to kill stepping forwards and stretching her arm towards her.

"Come with us, back to the Earth. I'm sure you'll be able to find a new purpose in life," The woman said and stared at Junko who looked back at her with hateful spark in her eyes. It was then when the tremors hit the building harder. Everyone lurched a little and after they had recovered their balance they were in for a surprise. Junko had grabbed the woman's hand. She retained that hateful look on her face but she stood up and nodded to the woman even though Flandre could tell that she didn't want to. Junko then let go and walked past the woman and up to Sakuya who was signing Flandre and the woman to join her.

"Alright, now when that is finally out of the way we can leave," Sakuya said and sighed for relief with a bit sarcastic grin on her face.

"Speaking of which how are we going to do that. The city is crumbling down above us and it is still swarming with angry Lunarians. Not to mention your ship is pretty far away from here," Flandre said with worried tone and look on her face.

"Ah, I don't even remember where I left it. But we really don't need to worry about any of that," Sakuya said and dag out something from the pockets of her coat. She took few devices that looked like black bracelets. She gave each of them a one and showed them how to put them on.

"We don't need to remember such bothersome things such as where we parked because I always take couple of SDHT's with me," Sakuya said while making sure everyone had put the device on correctly.

"SDHT?" Flandre asked with confused look on her face.

"Short Distance Home Teleporter. Teleports the wearer back to the ship in a blink of an eye. Useful when you need a quick getaway," Sakuya said with a slight grin on her face.

"Good thinking," Flandre said with impressed tone while looking at the bracelet-looking device around her wrist.

"Okay, it is very simple. The big blue button, press that and the teleport will commence," Sakuya said and looked at everyone and made sure they had understood. Sakuya then nodded and pressed the button on her own teleporter. She disappeared in an instant. Flandre looked at the woman and Junko. They looked at the devices around their own wrists and pressed the button like Sakuya had told them to. Flandre did the same and the room around them changed in a bright flash. It actually tickled a bit. Flandre had thought that it would be something more spectacular but it happened quicker than she had realized. She was now standing in the middle of the room in Sakuya's ship where she had woken up. The soft humming of the engines could be heard on the background. Flandre looked at her hand, took off the device and looked around herself. The woman and Junko stood next to her and looked around themselves as well. They seemed pretty impressed by the Sakuya's teleporters.

"Seems like you all made it safely. Good. I'll set the course back towards Gensokyo," Sakuya said after checking that everyone was there. Flandre looked how she walked up to the control panels and started pressing the buttons as the sound of the engines got louder.

"Hmm, I'm impressed. I didn't know the people on the Earth have achieved such technology so early," The woman said while looking around herself.

"Actually she's not from Earth," Flandre corrected her while keeping her eye on Junko who just headed to the corner of the room ad sat down with emotionless look on her face.

"Oh? Then where is she from?" The woman asked with a bit curious look on her face.

"Well that's... eh... I don't know actually. She told me how she ended up on Earth and in Gensokyo but... I still don't know anything about her really," Flandre said with unsure tone and looked quickly at Sakuya.

"Hmmm, a curious one, I see. Some people like to keep their secrets and it is a respectable choice," The woman replied without taking the matter further.

"By the way. You told that you've been called with many names but you never said what should I call you," Flandre said with unsure and curious look on her face.

"That is a hard question to answer. I guess that Jouga will do. People have called me with so many seperate names that I've lost count but Jouga used to be the most common one used," Jouga responded after thinking about it for a while.

"By the way, why did you ask Junko to come with us? Do you really think she can help us in some way?" Flandre then asked while taking a glimpse at Junko with the corner of her eye. Junko was just sitting in the far corner looking pretty depressed.

"Considering that I don't know if even I can help I can only be even more uncertain about Junko. But the reason why I wanted to take her with us is that I pity her. Even if her personal hatred towards me is on a completely other scale and even unjustified to some decree, I still cannot help myself but to feel sorry for her," Jouga replied and looked at Junko. Flandre just nodded. She understood what Jouga meant and respected her decision. Not because she herself had been in a same situation but because if she had been in a situation like that she would have probably killed Junko right away. She wasn't proud of it but she just had a tendency to lose herself during the moments of violence. She then happened to take a look at Sakuya and saw her approaching them. She seemed to be doing fine even though she had an open wound on her chest.

"I've now set the coordinates to Gensokyo. We should be arriving shortly. I made it so that we will arrive there about two weeks after our supposed Scarlet Devil Mansion blew up," Sakuya said while walking towards the two.

"Why did you do it like that? Why can't we just return to the moment where we left?" Flandre asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Just making sure everything goes smoothly. In the end we stripped moon from its barrier after we left so returning to that exact moment with her would complicate things even further considering that back then moon still had its barrier. We might want to stay away from causing more paradoxes," Sakuya said while looking Flandre into her eyes. Flandre understood that it wasn't meant to be just a casual joke so she took her advice seriously.

"The other reason for that is simply because the people back in Gensokyo are suffering from traumatic shock. In the end they think we're dead. So just appearing casually right after we supposedly died could... well let's just say that they might end up attacking us if we returned to that exact moment. Minds needs some time to grieve," Sakuya explained while looking at Flandre and Jouga.

"Okay... I assume you know what you're talking about," Flandre said and laughed a bit sarcastically.

"But after we get back I'm going to make sure that my sister gives a full fledged apology for you and myself. I knew that she was power hungry and saw those around her as mere chess pieces but what she did by leaving you to the burning mansion was unbelievable," Flandre said, put her arms akimbo and looked at Sakuya with serious look on her face.

"Aye, about that. I wont be joining you back in Gensokyo. I'll just drop you there and then I ought to get going," Sakuya responded with a bit awkward look on her face.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Flandre asked with confused tone and tilted her head. She couldn't understand why Sakuya would want to leave them all of a sudden.

"Listen, Flandre. The only reason I haven't pulled a knife to your throat is solely because I owe you my life and I respect your cause. But you have to understand that my emphaty towards you doesn't mean that I feel the same for the rest of your kind. I'm not trying to be funny. I swear that if I see your sister I will pull a knife on her. Besides, even if you act out of the good of your heart it still doesn't mean that you will succeed. In fact the universe is really evil place and there's a saying my people used to have describing it. Mathematically good should not even exist in this universe anymore," Sakuya said with much more grim look on her face.

"So you're saying that you still believe that the universe is beyond saving?" Flandre asked with much more depressed tone and look on her face.

"Aye. Now, I may sound pretty pessimistic but I'm just being realistic. Now that doesn't mean that you should stop trying. I didn't stop trying to find my people even if I knew deep in my hearts that they were gone. I think I was just trying keep myself from thinking about it too much," Sakuya said and looked at the floor beneath their feet.

"I see... But you still have to wait around for a bit. You don't need to see Remilia. At least let few people say good bye before you leave," Flandre said and looked at Sakuya like a puppy that was asking for a treat.

"*sigh Fine, I guess I can wait around for a moment," Sakuya said and smiled faintly. She then patted Flandre to her shoulder, turned around and walked back to the control panel. It was then when Flandre and Jouga heard the engines go quiet. They had arrived.

"Welp, here we are," Sakuya said and pressed few buttons on the control panel. After that the door slided open revealing Gensokyo outside. Jouga immediately walked to the open door out of curiosity. Flandre on the other hand walked up to Junko to inform her that it would be time to go. She walked up to her and tried to help her to stand up by offering her hand but Junko simply refused her help by pushing her hand away. Junko then stood up on her own and walked to the door while constantly keeping her distance to Jouga. Flandre was then just about to walk to Jouga and Junko who were already taking a look outside but before that she walked up to Sakuya who seemed busy with the control panel.

"Before I go and get few people to see you before you leave I want to you to confirm something to me," Flandre said with serious look on her face.

"Sure. What is it?" Sakuya asked and looked at Flandre. Flandre then leaned closer and asked, "You said that the dark energy we call magic affects and keeps the whole universe intact, isn't that right."

"Yes, that is how it is. What about it?" Sakuya asked with a bit confused look on her face and tilted her head a little.

"That means that the watch was packed with dark energy from the beginging. Maybe it only unlocked its full potential once it came to Gensokyo where magic is much more frequent than in the outside world. You yourself said that you don't have any magical powers and it was your ship that gave you your time stopping ability. But back when you still were Sakuya I had grown to known you flew around like any other being capable of using magic or like you call it, the dark energy," Flandre said while looking Sakuya into her eyes. Sakuya looked at Flandre, dag out the watch from her pocket and looked at it. After a moment Sakuya cracked an amused laughter while looking at the watch.

"Maybe you're right. I admit that the dark energy is a concept that even my people didn't fully understand so it really might be that there are lots of things it is capable of doing that we're unaware of," Sakuya said and put the watch back into her pocket.

"Besides, that thing has apparently destroyed quite few realities already. What I've learned so far is that things tend to gather more and more energy the longer they're around... or have experienced a timeline or two. Especially people," Flandre said and an image of Rumia immediately popped into her mind.

"Just do me a one favor. Make sure that the watch is in safe hands once you leave," Flandre then uttered, stepped away from Sakuya and headed to the open door where Junko and Jouga were waiting for her.

"I'll give you my word," Sakuya said and smiled a bit while looking at Flandre who just peeked behind herself and nodded a little while cracking a slight smile herself too.

Jouga and Junko had already stepped out from the ship and were waiting for Flandre outside. It seemed to be night currently in the Gensokyo. It had been night went they left so if Sakuya brought them exactly two weeks into the future then it would make sense that it was night. But immediately when she stepped out from the ship she realized how silent it was. Usually Gensokyo's nights were pretty lively. Maybe a youkai or two flying about and crickets chirping but now it was awfully quiet. She looked around herself. They were in a small opening in some forest. By the looks of things it was the Forest of Magic.

"Okay let's just find someone so we can let everyone know that me and Sakuya didn't actually die and that we have people with us that they really should meet," Flandre said while scratching her hair with a bit confused look on her face.

"You sure you know where we're going?" Jouga asked with serious look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, the human village should be... let's see... to this direction," Flandre said after thinking for a moment. She then started walking into the forest while signing Junko and Jouga to follow her. But before she got too far she turned around just to make sure that Sakuya and her ship were still behind them and they were. She just wanted to make sure she would run off while she was away.

They started walking through the awfully quiet forest. Flandre was walking ahead of Junko and Jouga. Junko didn't seem to care about what was around her but Jouga seemed pretty interested in everything. Flandre on the other hand was just trying to guess what the others had done while she and Sakuya had been gone. Everything was so awfully quiet that something had to be going on. Either good things or a bad things.

"You don't even know how lively everything seems when one has spent thousands of years in a small room on moon and finally returns to Earth," Jouga suddenly uttered while touching some leaves of one bush they walked past.

"I don't know. Something seems to be off. It is night but it shouldn't be this quiet," Flandre responded while looking around herself.

"As I said, I was originally from Earth. Yes, it is pretty quiet around here. I was just mentioning that even when it is this quiet it is still pretty lively," Jouga continued.

"Actually even if it is quiet it doesn't mean that the world around you wouldn't be brimming with life," Jouga said while looking around herself in the forest. Flandre too took a quick look around but wasn't too impressed. She was just hoping to run across a familiar face soon enough so she could be certain that everything was okay. At least on some level okay.

They continued their walk and approached the human village a little by little. But before they could even see even a glimpse of the village Flandre stopped suddenly. They were currently in the middle of the thick forest with no spots of interests at their immediate vicinity so Jouga just looked curiously at Flandre as she looked around herself.

"What is it? Should we be worried?" Jouga asked and looked how Flandre suddenly turned and walked towards a nearby bush.

"Do you hear that? Sound of water. There's no wind so there's someone or something interracting with water. I just want to see and be sure about what it is," Flandre responded and approached the bush. Jouga followed her with curious look on her face while Junko stayed behind. She wasn't interested in the cares of the earthly beings. Jouga looked how Flandre crawled into the bush. She then pushed the branches away a little to see through herself. Behind the bush they saw a small pond. It wasn't any way interesting but what was interesting was what, or more specifically who was at the pond. The shores of the pond were rocky and on top of one of the rocks was sitting a person dipping their foot in in and out of the pond. Flandre recognized this person almost immediately. It was Patchouli, there was no doubt about it.

At first Flandre thought about calling out for Patchouli but once she took a better look at the situation she thought otherwise. Patchouli's clothes seemed pretty worn. Like she hadn't taken good care of herself or had been beaten up. She was sitting on the rock dipping her other feet to it while hugging her other feet tightly and shaking a little.

"You know her?" Jouga then whispered to Flandre.

"Yeah. I actually know her pretty well. But there's something wrong about her. It isn't like her to act like that. But honestly I shouldn't be surprised. Before we... well almost blew up and escaped to space with Sakuya, Patchouli, the girl on that rock you see, went absolutely berserk. It doesn't seem like she's up to no good at the moment but I'd be very careful. We don't know if she's fine," Flandre responded by whispering back to jouga. She the pulled herself out from the bush as quietly as she could. Jouga followed her. They then returned to Junko while trying to not cause commotion. Flandre was releaved to see that Patchouli was at least breathing still but the fact that she had acted so weird two weeks ago and Flandre didn't know the reason for that made her feel a bit more uncomfortable.

"So, we at least know that by the time of two weeks everything hasn't died here but that everything might be... unpredictable?" Jouga then asked as they reached Junko.

"Uhhh... maybe? She went mad before I left so I have no idea what has happened to the others. Let's just head for the village and see what we have there," Flandre said and signed Junko and Jouga to follow her. They kept walking for several minutes. Flandre tried to listen as carefully as she could to try and hear if there were people near them but as they approached the village no sings of anyone could be found. That was until they saw a glimmer of light in the distance coming directly from the direction of the human village. Flandre couldn't be more revealed.

"Look, light! I knew it, there they are. At least some of them. Come," Flandre exclaimed with much more lightened up tone and look on her face. She then picked up her pace as she started almost running towards the light in the distance. She was actually so enthused that she had accidentally left Junko and Jouga behind a little. She was so captivated by this familiar glow that she had become unaware of her surroundings. Only after a sharp blow was directed to her forehead was she brought back to reality and sent couple of meters bacwards. At first the world around Flandre went a bit blurry but she recovered herself pretty quickly. She held her head a for a moment but shook herself out of it and was just about to stand up when she saw a figure blocking some of the night sky above herself. At first she couldn't tell who it was but after her head cleared more she recognized a familiar pare of hair tubes, ribbon and a familiar looking brown hair.

"Reimu? You will never realize how releaving it is to see you," Flandre exclaimed when she finally distinguished Reimu's unbelieving face against the starry nigth sky.

"Impossible...," She simply heard Reimu uttering before she heard rustling from behind them. Flandre pushed herself up from the ground to turn around and take a look. She saw Junko and Jouga apprearing from the forest.

"Wh- what!? Junko? Wh- How? And who is this? Wh- just what in the bloody blazes is going on?" Reimu almost yelled as she backed away from Flandre Junko and Jouga. Once Flandre had gotten up she just looked at Reimu with a bit confused look on her face.

"Am I going crazy? No it cannot be... can it? Is this how the others went mad too? Tell me that you're real and I'm not just seeing things," Reimu then said with frantic tone and pointed at Flandre, Junko and Jouga in front of her.

"Well you blasted me straight to my face. That felt pretty real to me at least," Flandre said and shrugged her shoulders. She then just looked how Reimu approached her with unbelieving look on her face. Reimu looked at Flandre at first and then at the two other she had with her.

"How can you be just standing there breathing? You died. Two weeks ago when the Scarlet Devil Mansion blew up. There were no survivors. Everything and everyone inside were destroyed. There was no chance of survival," Reimu uttered with unbelieving look on her face while looking at Flandre who stared back at her with a bit awkward look on her face.

"Yeah... that... is a long story. I will try to explain it to you once I have the time but now I have to find Yukari. Oh, Sakuya survived too. You have to come and see her now," Flandre suddenly said after remembering Sakuya. She then quickly looked around herself to make sure she would remember the place where they now were. She then turned towards Junko and Jouga.

"Stay put for a moment. I have to visit Sakuya with Reimu," Flandre said with enthused look on her face and without asking for Reimu's approval nor if it was okay with Junko or Jouga she grabbed Reimu's wrist and pulled her with her as she started running back into the forest.

"Whoah! Slow down a bit! What are you doing!?" Reimu yelled as Flandre pulled her with her. Flandre then looked back at Reimu and saw her trying to resist.

"There's so much I need to explain so it is best if you saw some things by yourself," Flandre said and let go of Reimu's wrist who just looked at her with utterly confused look on her face. Flandre and Reimu had stopped in the middle of the forest and Reimu was looking around herself with worried look on her face.

"We really should return. It isn't safe this far out from the village," Reimu uttered while looking around herself.

"It isn't that far. Please, you have to see her. There wont be any other chance," Flandre pleaded while looking Reimu into her eyes.

"*sigh I will regret this but... alright. If you say she's alive then what choice do I have. Although I still can't wrap my head around the fact that even you are alive," Reimu then sighed and uttered with a bit annoyed tone but trusting look on her face. Flandre then turned around and started leading them further into the forest. Reimu followed her while keeping the distance between the two as small as possible. Flandre could easily tell that Reimu was afraid of something but she could ask about it some other time. Only thing on her mind currently was to at least get Reimu to see Sakuya. They started to reach the spot where Sakuya had stayed with her ship. They only needed to get past one final thicket. Flandre rushed through the bushes with enthused look on her face but the look on her face didn't last for very long when she finally got to the other side of the bush. Sakuya and her ship were both gone with only small mark on the grass indicating that the ship had left quite recently.

"No, no, no, you promised to stay and wait," Flandre uttered as she approached the middle of the small open area they were in. Reimu on the other hand just looked around herself with rather confused look on her face.

"So, eh... where is she?" Reimu asked while scratching her hair.

"Sh- she was just here. I told her to wait around. Why did she leave us behind?" Flandre uttered with frantic tone and look on her face while looking around the grassy area like looking for the ship. Reimu on the other hand just stared at her with sorry look on her face.

"You... sure that she was here in the first place?" Reimu asked with a bit awkward look on her face.

"Of course I am! You think I'm crazy!?" Flandre retorted and turned back towards Reimu to which she just responded with a silent stare.

"D-don't answer that. But she was here. You can confirm it from Junko or Jouga, they both saw her. She helped me to get Jouga from the Lunar Capital," Flandre continued with annoyed tone and look on her face.

"Whoa, slow down. The Lunar Capital? What the hell are you on about?" Reimu asked with utterly confused look on her face.

"*sigh I'll explain on the way back," Flandre uttered and started walking back towards Reimu so they could return back to the human village. But while approaching Reimu she suddenly felt how she stepped onto something. She lifted her foot and found Sakuya's watch laying on the ground and reflecting the starlight dimly. Flandre squatted down and picked it up.

"What did you find?" Reimu then asked.

"Proof that she was here and that I wasn't hallucinating," Flandre said while dangling the watch from its chain with a faint smile on her face.

"Okay, but we really need to get going now. It is dangerous to be this far out from the village," Reimu said, turned around and started heading back to the village. Flandre just simply looked at the watch in her hand for a moment and put it into her pocket before following Reimu. She had told Sakuya to keep the watch safe so she found it weird that she had left it behind. Had she meant Flandre to find and keep it? She couldn't tell but she knew well enough that such an artefact couldn't be left lying onto the ground... without a really good reason.

On their way back Flandre started explaining what had happened to her and Sakuya after she had rushed into the burning mansion. How it turned out that the mansion wasn't actually a mansion at all and instead a ship and Sakuya was the owner. She told Reimu everything Sakuya had told her. Her origins and how she had ended up in Remilia's service. Reimu just looked at Flandre with unbelieving look on her face. She found it hard to believe but Flandre constantly reminded Reimu about Junko, Jouga and the watch that proved that she wasn't making it up. She then told how she had convinced Sakuya to help her to get to the Lunar Capital to get the fourth sage of Gensokyo. Also about how it had actually been Sakuya who had figured out that the fourth sage was probably on the moon. Flandre finished her story just before she and Reimu returned to Junko and Jouga who were still waiting for them where Flandre and Reimu had left them. Flandre had just told Reimu how they had gotten Jouga out from the capital and what had led to them taking Junko with them too. By the looks of things both were able to be withing ten meters away from each other without Junko attacking Jouga which Flandre found releaving.

"So what you're saying is that she is the fourth sage of Gensokyo and the one upkeeping the barrier?" Reimu repeated the question she had asked at least five times already after Flandre had finished telling what had happened. Flandre simply nodded as a responce like she had done each time before. Jouga then turned towards the two upon hearing Reimu asking this question.

"An over simplified version from reality, but an accurate one," Jouga responded and chuckled a bit. Reimu then approached Jouga while looking at her like a child at a Christmas present.

"If what you're saying is true then she might be our ticket to victory," Reimu uttered with amazed tone and look on her face. Flandre and Jouga just looked at each other and then at Reimu.

"Speaking of which, you haven't told me what has happened here during these two weeks that I've been gone," Flandre then said with her arms akimbo.

"I'll explain on the way. We just have to get her to Yukari's attention as soon as possible," Reimu said hastily and signed them to follow her. Reimu started walking towards the human village in the distance with haste. Flandre and Jouga followed right behind her while Junko did the same but kept her distance.

"So about what has happened?" Flandre then asked as they started walking towards the village. Reimu just peeked at Flandre with serious look on her face before she started to fill her in about what had happened.

"After the incident at the Scarlet Devil Mansion everything started going downhill really fast. You remember what happened Patchouli and Sanae?" Reimu started with nervous tone.

"Well I only heard about what happened but I never saw it in action," Flandre responded and looked at nervous looking Reimu.

"Turns out they weren't the only ones. Youkai all around Gensokyo started losing their minds. At first there were only small amount of them so staying inside and away from youkai dense areas was enough to avoid them but more and more cases started to appear. For people like me who can exterminate youkai and for the other youkai as well these instances weren't too severe but for the people of the human village it was a serious threat," Reimu continued while looking at the village in the distance.

"And so to protect them we established 'The Guardian Ring'. It was a safe zone guarded by Yukari, the other sages, I and some powerful enough youkai to keep the crazed ones out from the village. This worked surprisingly well... at first. The number of mad youkai were low so the number of attacks were low but around week after the Scarlet Devil Mansion incident the number of mad youkai had grown to really big numbers and something had happened amongst them. They had become organized," Reimu explained and stared at Flandre.

"What do you mean organized?" Flandre asked and tilted her head.

"They started attacking the village every night in bigger numbers. It was around that time when we found out that Rumia was among them too," Reimu explained but was soon interrupted by confused Flandre.

"What does she have to do with this?" Flandre asked while looking at Reimu.

"I'm getting to it. We fend the attackers off twice before Yukari finally gave the order to kill any and all attackers. It was a shock at first but during the next attack the shock died out and was replaced with another. The crazed ones couldn't be killed. No matter what you did to them they would heal themselves in seconds. So instead of giving them a killing blow we just try to injure them badly to make then unable to continue attacking. However, the same attackers returned each night and more and more people went crazy all the time. But one thing stays the same, Rumia is the only one who is seemingly sane... if that word can be used to descibe her in the first place. She has been part of every last assault but she is the only one who doesn't just go around trashing everything on her way, no. She is actually smart about her moves," Reimu explained with serious tone and look on her face. Flandre could never have expected that something like this would be going on bacn in Gensokyo while she was away.

"Do you think that she is somehow responsible for all of this?" Flandre then asked carefully

"No, we don't think, we know. And we know what is causing everyone to go crazy. We just don't know how to prevent it," Reimu said and looked at Flandre.

"Really? What is it?" Flandre asked with much more lightened up tone and look on her face.

"We call those who go crazy 'the absorbed' because they've been absorbed by their own timeline. We know this because recently even the people within the village have been going crazy. We've locked them away from the rest of the humans to keep them safe which has given us a chance to study those who have gone mad and the process that leads to it much more closely," Reimu explained with still very serious look on her face.

"It was around this time when everyone started seeing themselves. Other versions of oneself from other timelines. Every youkai and human. But only their own doppelgangers. For instance I could see my other self doing something but anyone else than I would not be able to see it or interract with it. At first we thought that we were going crazy but Marisa was able to shed some light onto all of this once she told that she had actually seen her doppelgangers for quite some time already. She had learned the doppelgangers were actual physical things and not just product of our mind," Reimu continued and looked at the human village as they approached it.

"So what about the mad ones? How does this relate to them?" Flandre asked with curious tone and look on her face.

"How we figured out the reason for going mad was when we started realizing that the people who were about to go mad started seeing other people's doppelgangers before it happened. They also said that they started hearing voices in their heads and couldn't see their own doppelgangers anymore. Usually this was followed with strong headache and after that the person would start to act as though they had lost their mind. The sages came into conclusion that they had somehow been absorbed in their own timeline. In the other words every single doppelganger that you saw is now you. And when there are countless minds locked in a single body and none of them is dominant the victim just loses it," Reimu explained as they started to approach the village gates.

"So you have to find a way to free themselves from that... state they've gotten themselves into?" Flandre asked while looking behind herself at Jouga and Junko.

"Yeah, though we haven't had any success with that since we're constantly bothered by the attacks by the other youkai," Reimu responded and walked towards the gates of the human village. Flandre just looked around herself as they approached the gates. More and more youkai started to gather around them from all around. By the looks of things they were not the ones who had gone mad since they just kept their distance and watched curiously. It was then when they saw Alice and Youmu approaching them. It seemed like they were heading into the village as well but upon seeing Reimu, Flandre, Jouga and Junko they stopped.

"People are returning from their patrols. We do these every night before the attacks to maybe get a hint on where the next assault might come from," Reimu said and looked at Alice and Youmu who at first looked like they weren't going to believe their eyes. But after they realized that they weren't dreaming or seeing things they started rushing towards them.

"Reimu? What is this? Is that Flandre? How can she be just standing there... alive?" Alice asked after she and Youmu had ran up to them.

"I'll... let her explain once we're inside. We have something much important at hand right now," Reimu responded and kept walking towards the human village.

"And who're they?" Youmu then asked and looked at Jouga and Junko. Reimu looked at Junko and Jouga for a second and then at Youmu.

"Come, you'll see," Reimu simply responded as she approached the gates. Flandre looked up and saw few guards patrolling on the village wall and when they saw Reimu approaching and doing some hand signal they walked up to the gate winches and opened them so they could enter.

"Believe me or not but there are actually quite lot of youkai within the village walls now when everyone is afraid that they'll go mad next. Of course it is just the selcted few who can enter but I hope you all can behave yourself while we're in," Reimu said as they watched how the gates opened and the village opened before their eyes. It had actually not changed that much. Flandre had thought that it would be in chaos but everything looked nice, tidy and well organized escept for few tents here and there. The streets were also quite well lit with few guards patrolling them. Some where humans and some youkai. To Flandre it seemed weird to see humans and youkai being able to live within the same walls.

"Come, the sages are at the Myouren Temple," Reimu said and headed towards the temple that could be seen behind the village buildings.

"So... This is the human society that lives within the barrier I uphold. Fascinating," Jouga uttered while looking around herself as they walked along the streets.

"How so?" Reimu asked and peeked behind herself.

"It is so peaceful. Back in my days... well back when I had just become goddess this would have been impossible. People wouldn't have felt safe before all youkai they could get their hands onto would be wiped out," Jouga responded while looking at the youkai and humans patrolling the streets while still keeping their distance to one another.

"Well we're in a state of emergency so there is no other way to survive," Reimu responded with surprisingly serious look on her face. Flandre knew that the matter of the relationship between youkai and humans was a sensitive topic for Reimu.

"In the case of emergency, yes, you're absolutely right. But have you ever thought if it would be possible even without emergency?" Jouga asked with curious tone and look on her face.

"Not possible. Youkai and humans cannot coexist peacefully in a long run," Reimu responded with a bit annoyed tone.

"Hmm, hmm, I see. You've never tried it," Jouga responded and chuckled a bit. It was then when Reimu stopped, turned around and took a long glare at Jouga.

"I'm sorry, but we're here to dicuss about if you can be the key in saving us from this crisis. You're not here to change the world," Reimu uttered with unamused tone and look on her face.

"Oh, am I not? Because I think there's one thing you've misunderstood. I am your world. Without I you wouldn't even exist. None of you. Okay, maybe some of you, but most of you wouldn't be even a though in our minds. You could at least act a bit less arrogantly. I'm not saying that I wouldn't help you, no. I will do everything within my power. I just cannot say that I agree with her ways of doing things," Jouga responded while laughing a little. Reimu and Flandre just looked at her for a moment with confused looks on their faces.

"Her?" Reimu asked and tilted her head with her arms akimbo.

"You know, let us do this in a bit different way. I'll wait at the bottom of the stairs leading to the temple while you go in and utter a word so that everyone can hear it I'm gonna whisper into your ear. Let's see how they react," Jouga said and grinned while looking at Reimu.

"By the gods, this is not time for any games," Reimu exclaimed with annoyed look on her face.

"Games? If I was playing any 'games' I wouldn't be here at all," Jouga said and looked at Reimu with much more serious look on her face. Reimu looked back at Jouga for a moment before sighing deeply.

"Fine. Let's just head to the temple," Reimu bridled and started leading their small group towards the temple again. Their walk wasn't too long so neither Flandre or Jouga got bored while walking through the village. In fact since neither of them had visited the village before they wouldn't have minded if the walk would have been longer. The village was small and curious place that was surprisingly lively even during the night. Although that was most likely because there was a full on crisis going on around Gensokyo.

When they finally reached the stairs leading to the Myouren Temple they stopped. Reimu turned around and looked at Jouga with her arms akimbo.

"So, what am I supposed to say to them?" Reimu asked while looking at Jouga. Flandre, Alice and Youmu just looked how Jouga chuckled a bit, walked up to Reimu and whispered something to her ear. Junko was with them too but she still kept her distance.

"That's it? You think that will spark some sort of a reaction?" Reimu asked with doubtful and confused tone.

"I'm one hundred percent positive about it. And didn't I say that it was just one word? But anyhow, go now. Let's see what happens," Jouga said and grinned playfully. Reimu looked at her for a second, then rolled her eyes and started walking up the stairs. Flandre and the rest of them just looked how Reimu started climbing the steps.

"What did you say to her?" Flandre then asked curiously and looked at Jouga.

"My real, original name," Jouga said and smiled a bit more widely. It wasn't anymore that playful smile but more of a plaintive smile. The one you make when you meet a relative or friend you haven't seen in long while. Jouga, Flandre, Youmu and Alice all just watched how Reimu climbed the steps and entered the temple building. Jouga seemed awfully certain that Reimu saying her name out loud would cause some sort of reaction amongst those in the building. They all just waited eagerly for what would happen and their wait wasn't that long. The temple doors soon flew open and they saw Yukari charging out with utter shock on her face. All of them just watched how Yukari looked around herself for few seconds before spotting the small group at the bottom of the stairs. After seeing them Yukari started rushing down the steps. Flandre had never seen Yukari running. Everyone kew that Yukari was a sort of a person to always carry her dignity and because of that running wasn't a thing you usually saw Yukari doing.

Yukari rushed down the stairs as fast as she could. It was then when they saw the confused looking Reimu, Ran and Okina coming out from the temple to see where Yukari was heading. They were just in time to see Yukari reaching the bottom of the steps and stopping just in front of Jouga, Flandre, Youmu and Alice. All of them except Jouga just looked at Yukari with a bit confused looks on their faces. Yukari then took one careful step towards Jouga with unbelievng look on her face.

"Impossible... I-is it truly you...? Or am I just starting to lose it?" Yukari uttered while stretching her arm towards Jouga to touch her cheek.

"Didn't we lose ourselves a long time ago? And isn't it the most important thing to find what you lost?" Jouga simply responded with a gentle smile on her face.

"Renko...," Yukari simply uttered and leaped towards Jouga and hugged her tightly. Flandre, Alice and Youmu just looked at the two with confused looks on their faces. Jouga had said that her name would mean something but they had certainly not expected this. Reimu, Ran and Okina were currently descending the steps towards Jouga and Yukari. They were as confused about all of this as Flandre, Alice and Youmu.

"Missed me, have you? Maribel," Jouga uttered while hugging Yukari back. Flandre finally grew bored of being completely confused so she stepped forward to get Jouga's and Yukari's attention. It was around then when Reimu, Ran and Okina arrived to the scene too.

"Okay, what is going on? You told that your name meant something to them but I certainly did not anticipate you two to act like you had always known each other," Flandre bridled while looking Jouga and Yukari with annoyed look on her face. Yukari and Jouga then finally let go of each other and looked each other in the eyes. Flandre could clearly see that Yukari had started to cry but that didn't make her any less annoyed since Yukari and Jouga just kept ignoring her.

"You will never know how much I have missed you. Every day from the moment I lost you," Yukari uttered with wavering tone.

"It has truly been a long time. Too long old friend," Jouga responded and just smiled back at Yukari.

"But I don't understand. How can you be standing there. It makes no sense," Yukari said and stared deep into Jouga's eyes.

"Well, I have these two to thank for freeing me," Jouga said and finally turned towards Flandre and Junko who was still standing on the background. Yukari turned her gaze towards the two and looked at them for a long moment before stepping towards them. Yukari stared at Flandre for a moment. Flandre just stared back at her with a bit impatient look on her face and tilted head. Yukari then kneeled before Flandre and took a hold of Flandre's hand with her both hands.

"It brings me such joy to see you alive. But I'd be lying if I said that that joy would compare to that when I saw Renko with you. I don't know how you did it or even why. But I owe you everything for bringing her here," Yukari uttered while staring at Flandre. She then stood up and walked past Flandre, Alice and Youmu. She stopped just in front of Junko and looked at her for a moment.

"A few moments ago I would have considered you as an enemy if I had seen you standing there. But now I'm in your debt," Yukari said and bowed humbly at Junko. Junko just stared back at her without saying a word nor changing the look on her face.

After Yukari was done thanking Flandre and Junko Flandre stepped towards Yukari with her arms akimbo.

"How about you start to repay your debt by explaining what is going on? How come you two know each other so well?" Flandre asked with strict tone and look on her face. Yukari then turned towards Flandre and looked at here.

"Not here. Come," Yukari said, turned around and started heading back towards the temple. Jouga started walking beside her. Flandre looked at the two for couple of seconds before following them. No one seemed to understand what was going on by the looks on their faces as they started following Yukari. The one to look most sceptical was Okina. She immediately approached Yukari and whispered something into her ear while keeping her eye on Flandre. Apparently someone who was expecte to be dead appearing alive in front of everyone didn't gain her trust immediately. Yukari how ever didn't seem to react to what Okina said, what ever it might have been and instead just started climbing the steps quietly. Everyone followed Yukari and Jouga up towards the temple waiting for a proper explanation for everything. Once they reached the top Yukari walked up to the temple door, held it open and waited till everyone had entered. She herself then stepped into the temple and shut the door behind herself.

Flandre looked around herself in the temple. It seemed a bit different from the last time she had visited it. Although she has seen only small portion of it. The temple was turned into this big meeting hall. Apparently they needed a place where the most influental people could gather to discuss important matters.

"Hijiri must be mad about this," Flandre thought to herself while looking around herself in the hall. She looked how everyone walked past her towards the seats near the center of the room. Everyone seemed to know where to head. They must have done this many times.

"Everyone here have their own seats. Flandre and Renko can sit anywhere they want since they don't have places in the council yet," Yukari said and sat down to a chair nearest to the middle of the hall they were in. Flandre just walked to one chair and sat down. She then looked how Jouga walked past her and sat to the seat nearest to Yukari. After everyone had taken their seats a silence fell onto the hall. Everyone sat there quiet and just stared at Jouga and Flandre. It was also then when Flandre realized that Junko wasn't there with them but she wasn't surprised by this. In the end, Junko hadn't seem that interested in anything after she had agreed to come with her and Jouga to the Earth.

"So... How do you plan on sorting this mess?" Okina finally broke the silence by asking while looking at Yukari who was sitting few seats from her.

"First of all we have to prove that she is actually the same Flandre that we thought was dead," Yukari responded with much more serious tone and look on her face.

"Wait. Weren't we supposed to get answer for your awfully friendly reaction to Jouga's presence?" Flandre asked with a bit huffy tone.

"All in good time. Would you be so kind as to tell us how you managed to survive from the burning mansion?" Yukari responded and asked while looking at Flandre with curious spark in her eye. Flandre stared back at Yukari for good few seconds before she started to explain the whole story she had already told to Reimu. It didn't take long for Yukari, Okina and Ran to realize that Reimu had alreayd heard this story from the look on her face. But even so they remained silent and let Flandre finish her story. Once Flandre was done she stopped talking and just stared at everyone to see what kind of a reaction they had. Everyone except Alice and Youmu seemed pretty calm after Flandre was finished. Like they already knew what had happened. Well Jouga and Reimu did but still, the lack of reaction surprised Flandre.

"Interesting. Judging by the lack of reaction from Reimu's part you have already heard this story," Yukari said wither fingers crossed while leaning against a small table with her elbows.

"Yes, she told me the same story when we were approaching the village," Reimu responded with convincing tone and looked at Yukari.

"So it seems you either have practiced telling this story or you're telling the truth. We can test that easily. Just bring Remilia here," Yukari continued and looked at Ran who was sitting on the seat left from Yukari's.

"I will get her right away," Ran said, stood up and walked out from the hall. Flandre looked how Ran exited through a door and then looked back at Yukari and pretty sceptical looking Okina.

"Now, are you going to tell what's with between you and Jouga or not?" Flandre finally asked with strict look on her face.

"There's no need to be impatient. I was just about to get there but before I start we have to make sure we all are on a same page. Her name is Renko. Jouga is just one of the many aliases she has," Yukari responded with calm tone and a slight smile on her face.

"With all due respect, she's not the only one getting impatient," Yukari heard Okina saying from beside her.

"Well now, I suppose it is time... to give you your answer," Yukari responded while leaning against the table with her elbows and resting her head on her hands.

"Has any of you ever thought why I allowed Sumireko to enter and leave Gensokyo freely?" Yukari then suddenly asked without looking at anyone specifically.

"Hey, why are you changing the subject all of a sudden?" Flandre almost yelled after hearing Yukari's question. Yukari just looked at Flandre with slight grin on her face.

"I haven't changed the subject in any way. Sumireko plays bigger role in all of this than any of you might have realized. You see, without Sumireko there would be no Gensokyo," Yukari said while retaining that same look on her face.

"What do you mean by that? What does that girl have to do with anything?" Reimu asked and looked at Yukari with sceptical look on her face.

"Let me tell you it in a way so that you all understand. Sumireko Usami found out about Gensokyo by using those Occult Balls that I'm sure all of you remember," Yukari started and enhanced her poisture on her seat.

"And back in the outside world Sumireko formed the Secret Sealing Club. A club that dedicated itself for studying everything supernatural. However she was the only one in that club," Yukari continued and looked at the others.

"Why are you telling us a story about Sumireko? And why are you talking about her like she would be a character from the past?" Alice asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Patience. As I said, Sumireko was the only member of her club and because of that she never managed to achieve more than couple of glimpses to this Gensokyo she had found. And so, years pass and Sumireko finally dies of old age. Though she left something great behind her. The Secret Sealing Club lived on and soon after two new members joined. Maribel Hearn and Sumireko's descendant Renko Usami," Yukari said with ever widening grin on her face. It was then when everyone's gazes turned towards the woman next to yukari. The whose name Yukari said was Renko.

"Wait, are saying that...?" Reimu started but her sentence was cut short by Yukari.

"Please, let me finish. Those two were now the only members of that club and together they dedicated their life to the research of occult, everything supernatural and esoteric. But the breakthrough for the research of that club came when they realized that Maribel had an ability. An ability to detect and interract with the boundaries of this world and beyond. The things those two uncovered were marvelous. Wrolds and beings no one had even dreamed could exist. But just like Sumireko with her Occult Balls, Maribel was bound to find that mysterious Gensokyo with her ability eventually. And when she did it clinged to her mind thightly. This mysterious land became an obsession for the Sealing Club. Maribel was enthused by this world but Renko was starting to become worried that one day the two would be separated. Her fear was justified since she didn't have any abilities herself beside her vast knowldge in physics and astronomy. Maribel on the other hand had a magnificent ability that just grew stronger over time. Soon Maribel was able to travel to the world she had become obsessed with via her dreams. Just like Renko's ancestor before her," Yukari continued her story and the tone of her voice suddenly got much more serious.

"In these dreams she encountered beasts and beings that humans had thought didn't exist. All sorts of demons and most of them weren't friendly. The dreams became dangerous for her. Injuries she got in her dreams stayed on her body even after waking up but so did the objects she had picked up while being asleep. This of course made Maribel even more enthused and Renko more scared. Some time passed and Maribel's ability had become powerful enough to be able to take people with her into her dreams. For the first time Renko too could witness the wonders Maribel had seen. Those two travelled far and wide. They saw wonders humans had never seen before. The wonders they had seen inspirated Maribel to write books about all of it. Those books were bound to become a huge hit. People from all across the world started to become more and more interested in supernatural. This was outrageous since the world was filled with technology and science. Everything supernatural had been denied to exist yet Maribel sparked a new curiosity within the humans. But even then no one knew that everything written in the books were absolutely true and that Maribel desired to bring these wonders for all the world to see," Yukari continued with much more serious tone and look on her face. Everyone just stared at her waiting for her to continue the story she had started.

"A-are you saying that this Maribel girl wished to reveal Gensokyo to the outside world?" Reimu asked carefully.

"Yes. That was her wish. She thought that someday her ability would be powerful enough to bring down the barriers separating these worlds. Her plans became ever more realistic after her ability had grown to such extend that she was able to open holes into the very existance. These holes in the reality were visible for all. She no longer had to use dreams if she wanted to visit the worlds beyond her own. Knowing that Maribel could control her ability more freely now made Renko's fears ease a little but not entirely. It was around this time when they started their first full scale explorations to this world Maribel had started to call Gensokyo. They discovered that the world was much more than they had thought at first. Wonderous beings with amazing powers habited the world. To their surprise they even found humans from that world. But it was then when they started to realize that the world they had uncovered wasn't present in their own time. Maribel's ability had taken them into the past. To the time before even Renko's ancestor had discovered Gensokyo. It was a fascinating discovery but also a one that made Maribel more and more frustrated. Knowing that her own world and the world beyond didn't exist during the same time meaned that she could never bring the two together," Yukari continued her story. Every now and then Flandre turned her gaze away from Yukari and towards Jouga who Yukari called Renko to see if the look on her face could tell her something but the look on her face didn't even budge. She just sat there beside Yukari with unwavering look on her face.

"But this also meaned new opportunities for Maribel. She could travel not only through the boundaries of the world but also through the boundaries of time as well. She however decided to let it be for now. She had started to realize how worried Renko was about her. So to ease her feeling a little she decided that the two should make a trip to the moon. They both knew that Maribel's ability had also allowed for her to move long distances in their world. Meaning that they could visit any place on Earth when ever they wished. But they had never visited moon before. Maribel had however never travelled such a long distance with her ability, so she created a plan.. The reflection of the moon from the surface of a pond. Using that she created a gap into the moon. But... she made a terrible miscalculation. The rotation of the Earth. The gap was bound between the moon and the reflection on the surface of the pond but after Earth had rotated enough the moon and the reflection didn't line up anymore shutting down the gap. Maribel and Renko were trapped on the moon," Yukari said and the stopped. She stared at Flandre with emotionless look on her face. Flandre stared back at her and suddenly her eyes widened from realization.

"However. That wasn't their only concern. They had know that humans had already colonized the moon. Maribel's plan was to create a gap into one of those colonies. Creating a gap to the moon's naked surface would have been suicidal because of the vacuum but when they sat on the surface of the moon they realized that something was off. There was no colony nor vacuum. Both of them were sitting on the dusty surface of the moon not being able to comprehend what was going on. Until... they started looking around. They were surrounded by tons of scarp metal and corpses. The colony had never existed. It had been destroyed before it was even complete. The realization hit both of them hard. There had never been a colony on the moon. It was just something the goverments had told the people to hide the failure. But neither of them still knew what exactly had caused the colony to become destroyed... and maybe they never should have found out," Yukari said and finally turned her head towards Renko who was sitting next to her. Renko simply looked back at her but didn't utter even a single word.

"Instead if investigating the situation they should have figured out a way to get back to Earth as soon as possible but their curiosity was too strong. Both of them had always thought that the moon was a lifeless rock but finding out that that rock had oceans and a whole city build onto it proved that what they had thought was a complet utter lie. But little did they know that they had gotten themselves into grave danger. They had unknowingly intruded on Lunar Capital's territory... as had the colonists from Earth. But it was too late already even if they had noticed it already back then. As soon as Maribel and Renko took a step too close a hell broke loose onto them. Lunarians didn't care who they were or for what purpose they had come to the moon. Maribel and Renko had no idea what their fate would be if they were to be caught there. In panic Maribel sought to create a gap that would send them back to Earth but... in her haste she had no time to think about where she opened the gap's other end... or when. Renko managed to get through the gap in time but Maribel didn't. So to make sure that her friend would stay safe from the Lunarians she closed the gap before they could get through it and get their hands onto Renko. That was the last time the two saw each other because back on the moon the Lunarians had already decided what would be Maribel's punishment. She had opened the gap to the moon and the gap that had allowed Renko to escape, so Lunarians decided that it would be just proper to make her a prisoner of her own ability," Yukari continued and the look on her face got much more grim.

"Maribel's gaps were bound to a pocket universe so that if she ever wanted to use her gaps she would have to always create a gap into that pocket universe first and from there to the location she wanted to get to. Once Maribe's ability was bound the Lunarians sent her back to Earth but... when her feet and hands finally touched the Earth's soil again the scenery before her eyes wasn't what she had expected. Cities she had once known were gone. Humans were nowhere to be seen. She tried to find out about where she was by waiting for the night and deduce her location from the stars but upon laying her eyes onto the night sky nothing made sense. The familiar star patterns she knew were all deformed and unrecognizable. Unable to figure out where she was the only thing she could do was to survive. But during those first few days the truth came clear to her. Seeing animals and beings thought to be extinct since the ancient times revealed the truth to her. Lunarians had sent her into the past. Logically the first thing she tried to do was to use her ability to get her back to her own time but no matter how hard she tried she could only travel between locations, not moments like she had used to been able. She would figure out it only millenia later but the reason she could not return to her own time again was because of what the Lunarians had done to her. The pocket universe to which her ability was now bound existed strictly within the same exact moment as the world around Maribel rendering her uncabable of warping through time ever again. No matter how hard she tried," Yukari said and took a moment to catch her breath. Everyone just looked at her like kids who were waiting for the story to continue.

"Wait, millenia? Are you saying that a human girl managed to survive in prehistoric environment on her own... for thousands of years?" Alice then suddenly asked with doubtful look on her face and her arms akimbo. Everyone looked at Alice at first and then at Yukari. Alice was right, Yukari's statement didn't make much logical sense.

"Am I proposing that? Why of course. You out of all people should know that, Alice," Yukari said and grinned a little. Alice winced a little after hearing Yukari's responce.

"Maribel, even if from completely different age than where she had been sent, was clever girl and her wits and ability combined made it so that she would survive with rather ease but a not a moment went by when she wouldn't think about where she had sent Renko and what had happened to her. Maribel was hoping to find Renko from the same time as she was currently in but with no results. Each ssecond, each minute, each hour, each day and each week she had to survive on her own made her hatred towards the Lunarians grow. And that very hatred fueled her ambition to find Renko. Little did she know that it would take her millions of years to make any progress. The ages went by. She saw a lot during that time. The meteor that wiped out the old life and made way for the new. She saw how the first humans rose onto their feet and invented fire. It was also around that time when the first legends about 'The Gap Hag' started to spread among the first human sociteies. Maribel wasn't a human anymore. She had become something else. She had become the first youkai to roam on earth. This however didn't make Maribel stop trying to make contact with the primitive humans but all her attempts were met with fear, fear of her power. This fear of the unknown would later spark the unused potential within human souls and give birth to even more youkai," Yukari said and stopped again to take a look at everyone around her.

"In the end the humans finally formed their first civilisations. But it had already been so long that Maribel Hearn was just a faint memory in the mind of a being that couldn't even remember its own purpose in life. That being had lived for so long that it had forgotten where it came from, had she known anybody in her life or why it even existed. That being had become an outcast from human and even youkai societies. There was nothing in life for that being but even then she could not end her existance for she had forgotten how to do so. All that continued until a rumor reached her ear. A rumor about a god that had descended onto the mortal realm. A god whose knowledge was unparalleled. A god that reminded her of someone. Someone she had forgotten even existed. For the first time in centuries the being felt that she had a purpose again. But in order to find that god she had to learn more about it. She would have to adapt into the human and youkai societies again and to do that she needed an identity. Something that she hadn't had in a long time," Yukari said and stopped once again to take a look around herself.

"Yukari, Yukari Yakumo was the identity she ultimately chose for herself," Yukari uttered out loud and it was at that exact moment when everyone who hadn't already finally realized for what reason she told this story.

"I travelled far and wide learning more about this god. And the more I learned the more it reminded me of someone. But when I finally managed to gather courage to directy meet that god I was met with an empty kingdom. The god and the people who had worshipped her were long gone. But that didn't stop me. I needed to know more and when I finally got to know what happened it all came back to me. An old man who I met told me that the god, Chang'e, Jouga, was taken into the Lunar Capital. At that moment it all came back to me. Renko, Lunarians, my real identity, everything. At that moment I knew what I had to do: get Renko back from the Lunarians. The only thing that boggled my mind was why the Lunarians would be after her. That was until I learned more about what had happened after Renko had emerged here. Because of her vast knowledge she indeed was treated as a god and because of that very reverence she truly had ascended to godhooh. The godhood had also apparently given her powers. It was something I could have never even dreamed about. My Renko, she would have powers of her own. Apparently her powers had their roots on her vast knowledge about the string theory. A theory she used much of her time studying. According to what I learned she could split realities forming barriers around what ever she desired. That had apparently made her kingdom unconquerable. It was no wonder why Lunarians would want such power. That's why I started planning. Planning my assault against Lunar Capital. I started gathering allies promising them better life if we managed to conquer Lunar Capital. All of that was a lie of course. I knew Lunar Capital was inpenetrable, especially now when they had Renko. So what I did was use the assault as a diverion so my closest and most loyal ally, Yuyuko, could sneak into the capital and bring a message to Renko: give us the power to expand the barrier around the Lunar Capital and Maribel will take you home. My ally reported that the message went through and I ordered an immediate surrender. I lied that the purpose of the assault was to teach youkai that wars would only lead to greater suffering while in reality the assault had been a total success. After we returned to the Earth I started the next phase of my plan. I started gathering a group of powerful youkai to establish a safe haven for youkai on Earth. Humans were progressing with their knowledge and the youkai were suffering from that so it wasn't hard to gather willing youka to help me. It was then when Renko filled her end of the bargain. She had spread ripples of her barrier surrounding the capital to the Earth. Ripples that I could detect and use to strecth the barrier from all the way from the Lunar Capital to the Earth. That's... how Gensokyo was born. It was to serve as a link between the Lunar Capital and the Earth so when the time comes I could finally bring Renko back onto the Earth. It's ironic now when I think about it. None of this would have ever happened if Gensokyo didn't exist but I had to create it in order to save my friend," Yukari said with a sarcastic grin on her face and finsihed her story. A complete silence fell onto the hall. Everyone just sat there looking at each other not knowing what to say after hearing Yukari's story. Heck, they didn't even know if they were supposed to call her Maribel or Yukari.

"S-so what you're saying is that...," Reimu started with unbelieving tone and look on her face but Okina was faster to finish her sentence.

"...that everything, all of Gensokyo and everything we've done to maintain in has been done so that you could get your friend back from the moon," Okina said with unamused and annoyed look on her face.

"That's precisely how it is but don't get me wrong, in the end Gensokyo has served its purpose in both ends. It has been a safe haven for youkai after the outside world became too dangerous and it brought my old friend back," Yukari said while chuckling a bit and leaning against the table with her elbows. Everyone were still sitting there not knowing what do or say after Yukari's story. It was eerily quiet until Alice finally raised her hand to say something.

"So... you two... you're from the future?" Alice asked with unsure and still a bit doubtful tone.

"Yes," Yukari simply responded.

"S-so when will you past future self visit Gensokyo for the first time?" Alice continued and stared at Yukari.

"Oh it has happened already. She visited us for the first time during the endless night incident, thought I made sure that my past self wouldn't get into too much trouble. Wouldn't want myself dying at so young age and denying the existnce of Gensokyo," Yukari said with a bit amused tone and look on her face. Alice then just lowered her hand to indicate that she had nothing more to ask. Now it was Flandre's turn to finally open her mouth.

"Okay, all of this has been confusing and all but we still have one final question, will bringing her back help us solve this incident on hand," Flandre said with a bit confused but mostly just concerned look on her face.

"That is a good question. But first we have to make sure we can trust you. In the end, you suddenly popping out and claiming to be alive and having Renko and that Junko with you is a bit shady," Yukari said with her head resting on her palms and while staring at Flandre with allusive spark in her eye. It was then when they heard a knock from the door through which Ran had left to get Remilia. Flandre guessed that she was now back and Remilia was with her. She could only guess what would be Remilia's reaction when she would see her alive.

"Hmmm, but I believe we'll see if we have any reason to worry soon enough," Yukari uttered with confident tone and look on her face as the door opened and Ran stepped in to the hall accompanied by a bit grumpy looking Remilia.

"What's the meaning of this? For what reason have you dragged me here?" Remilia bridled while looking at calm looking Ran. Yukari then stepped down from her seat and walked up to Remilia who just glared at her with annoyed look on her face.

"Don't worry, this'll just take a brief moment. You see, we have someone here who I'm sure you're pretty familiar with and we'd like you to confirm if what she tells us is true," Yukari said, nodded to Ran to indicate that she could leave and led Remilia further into the hall.

"Hmm, and who that 'person' might be?" Remilia asked with her arms akimbo while looking around herself in the hall. At first she didn't see Flandre but it was just the matter of time until she layed her eyes onto a familiar looking figure dressed in red.

"I-impossible...," Remilia uttered and took a step backwards. Flandre stared back at her sister with strict look on her face.

"That's what we thought at first too but it appears she has an explanation for her survival. Flandre, I'll let you take the lead from here," Yukari said and walked back to the seat, sat down and looked at Flandre and Remilia waiting for the two to do something. Flandre then stood up from her seat and started walking towards Remilia who was standing around the center of the hall. Remilia looked pretty shocked and annoyed at the same time.

"How come you're alive? You should be dead," Remilia bridled and looked at Flandre who stopped after she was about three meters away from her sister.

"I should be dead, huh? I guess you truly were intending to kill me and your closest servant. Well too bad. I and Sakuya both survived and I know everything already," Flandre retorted with her arms akimbo and a strict look on her face.

"Everything about what?" Remilia asked and turned her head away from Flandre who just tilted her head while staring at her sister.

"Everything about how you and Sakuya met and how you enslaved her. In fact I know more than you do. I know what you've been trying to figure out the whole time Sakuya was in your service; what she actually is," Flandre said and pulled the watch from her pocket and dangled it so that Remilia could see it.

"This watch. Sakuya told me what it was and how you had been trying to get it open. After you two clashed for the first time the truth has been troubling you since then," Flandre said while swinging the watch before Remilia's eyes. Remilia just looked at Flandre with annoyed look on her face. It seemed that Flandre was getting onto her nerves.

"Remilia, care to clarify if what Flandre said is the truth. Was Sakuya more than just an ordinary human?" Yukari asked with much more serious tone and look on her face. Remilia then just turned her gaze towards Yukari for a brief moment before turning back towards Flandre.

"Yes...," Remilia muttered from under her breath while clenching her teeth together. Yukari then just nodded with gentle smile on her face.

"Well then, I suppose there's high chance of it being true then. I'm saying that we can trust Flandre as long as no proof against her is presented," Yukari said so that everyone could hear her. Reimu and the rest of everyone else with them in the hall seemed to agree silently to Yukari's statement but Flandre had no intention to celebrate that she had earned their trust once again. She was intending to question Remilia even more.

"You knew that she was something special, something beyond your understanding and yet you still took a shameless advantage of her and then tried to throw her away once you got a chance. Why?" Flandre asked with strict tone and look on her face. Remilia just looked away from Flandre and remained silent. But Flandre wasn't taking any of it. She put the watch into her pocket and walked up to Remilia. When she reached her she grabbed her from her collars and shook her a little.

"Answer," Flandre growled at Remilia's face with almost furious look on her face.

"You, both of you have brought trouble only into my life. If you had just burned in the flames I would have finally been free," Remilia growled back at Flandre and was just about slap her younger sister but Flandre simply grabbed her arm and stared her deep into her eyes.

"Free from what? Your own kin? Do you understand that we are the last of our kind? Are you so desperate and jealous that you'd go so far as to wipe your own kind away just so that you would be the most powerful vampire?" Flandre yelled at Remilia's face. Remilia however didn't respond, just stared at Flandre without any signs of regret. Flandre then just growled a little and let go of her sister.

"If everyone around you have brought 'so much trouble' to your life', have you ever stopped and thought if you yourself have something to do with your own troubles," Flandre said and turned around to return to her seat. She looked around herself a little and saw that everyone was staring at her. She guessed that it must have been a quite scene seeing her and Remilia arguing like that but she couldn't help herself. She had to let it out directly at Remilia's face. If she didn't she would never understand. She was just about to just forget it when she happened to take another look at those around her in their own seats and it was then when she saw that they weren't looking at her and instead at something in front of her. Flandre then turned her gaze back in front of herself only to see Koishi standing right in front of herself. She spotted Koishi just in time that she wouldn't bump into her.

"Hiiii," Koishi uttered with a smug grin on her face while staring Flandre and leaning slightly against her own knees like trying meet Flandre's eyes with her own. Seeing Koishi appear so suddenly in front of her made Flandre freak out a little.

"Gyah! Koishi? Where did you come from?" Flandre yelped with a bit startled look on her face while taking a few steps bacwards.

"Oh, I have been here the whole time, didn't I say that I'll be keeping my eye on you," Koishi said and stood up straight while looking at Flandre with curious look on her face.

"If you have then why appear so suddenly?" They heard Reimu asking from her seat. Since Yukari was confident that what Flandre had told them earlier was the truth they were just about to leave the hall when Koishi had appeared.

"Hmmm, since you have done so much progress I thought it would be good time to give you some encouragement," Koishi uttered and looked at Reimu. Reimu, Youmu and Alice started to approach Koishi and Flandre while Yukari, Okina and Renko stayed at the background keeping their eye on Koishi and listening to what she had to say.

"We haven't seen you since the night the Scarlet Devil Mansion blew up. Why you haven't showed up to help us?" Reimu continued with strict tone and look on her face.

"Like I said, I've been observing. Besides you've been doing fine. I don't need to hold your hand in every turn of events now, do I," Koishi responded with almost indifferent look on her face.

"Well then, let's hear what you have to say," Alice said after reaching Koishi and Flandre. She seemed rather curious about Koishi's presence.

"Only this; you've had it pretty easy so far and you have managed it well but trying times are ahead. The fate of the very existance will be decided soon... very soon. Know that the chain of events that is about to start cannot and must not be stopped. Stay smart and think outside of the box and you will prevail," Koishi said with allusive grin on her face.

"What chain of events? You have to be more specific. We don't give a damn if it is 'spoilers' or not," Flandre retoirted, grabbed Koishi's shoulders and shook her a little.

"You always want more, eh? Fine then, I'll tell you more but know that this'll be the final piece of advice you'll get from me... or should I say a hint. Rumia is not the only one marching currently," Koishi uttered with much more grim smile on her face than before. The look on Koishi's face made Flandre wince a little and back away and it was at that exact moment when the main doors of that hall flew open.

"Yukari, this is urgent," They heard Meiling shouting from the door. Flandre and everyone else turned towards her to see what was going on. Meiling was standing on the doorway accompanied with Marisa. But when Meiling looked around the hall searching for Yukari with her eyes she saw Flandre standing in the middle of the hall which made Meiling take step backwards.

"M-miss Flandre... I-impossibel... How can she...?" Meiling stuttered in shock and surprise but her sentence was cut short by Yukari who approached Meiling.

"Turns out she's alive. Don't worry, we'll fill all of you in with the details once we have the time. Now, care to tell me what is so urgent?" Yukari asked with concerned tone and look on her face. Meiling looked at Yukari first, then at Flandre and then back at Yukari. Meiling then gathered herself and took a deep breath.

"Marisa and I noticed an awfull amount of movement in eastern side of the forest. We fear that tonight there will be more absorbed ones on the move," Meiling reported with worried look on her face. Yukari looked at Meiling for a second, rubbed her chin and then turned her gaze towards Marisa.

"Do you confrm that?" Yukari asked with concerned tone.

"Yeah, there were a lot of them. And we mean a lot," Marisa answered with serious but clearly concerned tone and look on her face.

"I see. Well then, we must gather our forces and prepare to defend ourselves immediately," Yukari said with thoughtful look on her face.

"All of you, come, things are about to get serious," Yukari said and looked at Flandre, Reimu, Alice and Youmu in the center of the hall. They all nodded and were about to follow Yukari outside when Flandre took one final glimpse around herself only realize that Koishi was long gone. She didn't pay much attention to it since Koishi tended to disappear when she so pleased. She then was just about to follow Alice and Youmu when she realized that Reimu had stayed behind and was still seemingly staring at Yukari, Meiling and Marisa in the doorway.

"What is it?" Flandre asked and tilted her head. Reimu then snapped out of it and looked at Flandre. She then shook her head a little and held her forehead.

"Oh it's just... ah, it's nothing. I was just absorbed in thought," Reimu responded and laughed a little before following the others outside. When they got outside they saw how the whole village had woken up suddenly. Youkai and humans were all heading towards the eastern side of the wall. Eveyone seemed to anticipate that the attack was coming soon.

"We spread the word while we headed here. Should save us a moment or two," Marisa said as they headed for the staircase leading down to the village from the temple. Yukari simply nodded as a responce. Flandre looked around herself. She had never seen anything like this happening in Gensokyo before. But she decided to ignore it for a second and approach Marisa. She hadn't seen Flandre in two weeks so she thought that a word or two were in order.

"Marisa, I know it has been a while since you last saw me and I know you thought I was dead but I just want you to know that it is good to see you in one piece," Flandre said while walking alongside Marisa as they descended the steps.

"Yeah, yeah. Can you save that for later? We're about be attacked and we need to stay sharp," Marisa simply responded without even looking at Flandre.

"I... I just thought that it might have been a quite shock to see me alive after what happened at the mansion," Flandre responded carefully and looked at her feet. She had thought that Marisa would be at least a little happy to see her again.

"What happened at the mansion was a shock to everyone... but it's all good now when it turned out that you are alive, isn't it," Marisa continued with a bit indifferent tone and look on her face.

"I... guess to," Flandre responded with even more depressed tone.

"So what happened to your other self. What happened to Flan?" Marisa then asked while looking around herself. They had reached the bottom of the staircase and were currently walking towards the eastern wall of the village.

"I didn't get her out. In fact I wasn't able to even get myself out in time. If it wasn't for Sakuya I too would have perished. Unfortunately she only had time to save one of us," Flandre responded with much more sad tone and look on he face.

"Well... that's tragic. But at least she isn't now attacking us together with the other absorbed," Marisa responded. Flandre knew that she tried to make her feel better but she could also hear from her voice that she really didn't care which didn't help Flandre's feeling even a little. They continued their walk in silence from that point onward. Flandre was clearly starting to sense how the atmosphere around them got a lot more tense the closer they got to the wall. She had already accepted that there would be a battle. But on what scale and against who, she was uncertain. They started to reach the wall. Or so Flandre thought as the number of armed humans and youkai started to increase dramatically. They followed Yukari as she navigated her way through the growd until they finally reached the wall. On the side of the wall there were many makeshift wooden frames holding some sketchy looking stairs that one could use to climb onto the wall. Flandre and the others followed Yukari's lead as she started to climb onto the wall. Flandre could see how some people looked at her with a little shocked looks on their faces but she had started to get used to it by now. Every now and then she could also see a familiar face in the growd.

They reached the top of the wall and once they were up they could finally take a look at what was going outside. The youkai she had seen outside of the village while arriving to the village with Reimu were now surrounding the wall forming a living barrier around it. It seemed that everyone was ready for what was to come.

"You see anything?" Okina asked while looking around herself on the wall. She was gazing at the treeline. That was apparently where the enemy would attack.

"Not yet. And besides we would hear it long before they would come," Yukari responded with serious look on her face. Flandre looked at the treeline as well but since nothing happened for a moment she decided to take a one final look around herself. She happened to see Junko in the distance on the edge of the growd gathered to the eastern side of the wall. Flandre then quickly glanced at Yukari and the others before hopping off from the wall. Immediately upon touching the growd she started to sqeeze her way through the crowd again towards Junko. Because Flandre was smaller in stature than most others around her getting through the crowd was rather easy and when she finally got through she saw Junko standing there keeping her distance to the others around her. The look on her face had switched from that grumpy look to much more serious since the last time she had seen her outside of the Myouren temple. Flandre approached Junko. When Junko saw her she turned towards her.

"Everyone seems nervous," Junko said while looking how Flandre walked towards her.

"No kidding. And they have a good reason. Some of them wont see the next sunrise," Flandre responded while looking around herself.

"Someone attacking?" Junko asked without changing her tone or the look on her face.

"Yeah," Flandre said and glanced at Junko.

"But I'm the most worried about those who stay inside the walls, like the kids and elderly. For them this village isn't a safe haven, it is a trap," Flandre said with serious tone and look on her face.

"What is it that you're after?" Junko then asked without even looking at Flandre.

"*Sigh Could you keep those inside the walls safe. I-I know that I'm asking you to do som-," Flandre started but was interrupted mid sentence.

"Don't worry. I'll keep them safe," Junko said with serious look on her face while looking how a mother rushied into a house with her kids in one of the alleys.

"Thank you! I-I'll repay this to you somehow," Flandre exclaimed with enthused and thankful look on her face but Junko just turned her serious gaze at her and responded, "There's no need. I'm just repaying my own debt."

"If it is about what happened on the moon, you don-," Flandre started but was soon interrupted again by Junko.

"I wasn't talking about that. My debt to my son. That I wasn't there to protect him when I should have. The least I can do is to protect those right here and now. I hope he forgives me," Junko said while looking how more families ran into buildings to hide.

"I'm sure he will," Flandre said with gentle smile on her face before turning around and heading back to the wall where she could still see Yukari and the others standing and waiting for the assault to start. Upon reaching the wall Flandre started climbing back to on top of the wall. But before she could reach the top of the wall she heard someone yelling from above her.

"We have the first one in sight," could be heard being yelled from the wall. Flandre started rushing upwards to see what was going on and upon reaching the top she got the answer. There was a figure moving near the treeline. It was too far away and it was so dark that it was impossible to tell who it was but there was no doubt that there was someone. Flandre looked how everyone around her suddenly prepared themselves to attack, like they all received some sign. But no one attacked just yet. It was then when Flandre looked a bit more closely she started to see more movement in the treeline. There were at least five, no ten, no, there were dozens of figures appearing from the forest one after another. Finally one of them came forward. The figure could hardly move forward and it seemed like it didn't have any sense of direction. When the figure was finally close enough Flandre could distinguish who it was.

"Sanae?" Flandre uttered with a bit shocked look on her face. She couldn't do anything else before Sanae let out a scream. But that scream wasn't that of a mindless beast or animal. That was a scream of fright. Flandre knew that better than anyone. Flandre just looked how Sanae charged towards the youkai surrounding the wall on the outside. Few of the youkai stepped forward and when Sanae was close enough one of the youkai tackled her sending her flying backwards for at least ten meters. That kind of an attack would have normally at least knocked the breath out of a human or even killed them in the worst case scenario but to Flandre's surprise Sanae stood up almost immediately. It was as though she didn't feel pain. And when Flandre looked for a second moment she noticed that there was no visible damage on Sanae's body. That had to be the the healing effect she was told about. And now when she thought about it she had seen Rumia regenerating her arm before the Scarlet Devil Mansion incident.

When Sanae had gotten up she seemingly shook herself for a moment and then let out another scream but this one had much less fright in it, Flandre could tell that much. But even before Sanae had stopped screaming an army of youkai and maybe even some humans ran from the dark treeline. The darkness had concealed their true numbers and Flandre's jaw dropped in an instant when she saw how many there actually were. She had thought that there were couple of dozen but in fact there were hundreds. She then looked down and saw how the youkai around the outside wall ran at the youkai who ran from the forest.

"That's not going to end well," Flandre could mutter just before the two waves of youkai and other mixed creatures crashed into each other. That's when the chaos started. Flandre could see youkai charging over the wall from within the village to take part in the battle. Some took flight and flew over the wall. The charge into battle was so chaotic and uncontrolled that Flandre too was accidentally knocked down from the wall and straight onto the grass that had already turned into muddy mush.

Flandre gathered herself from the ground, swiped some mud off from her skirt and then looked around herself. She could see youkai and humans all battling each other all around her. Occasionally she had to dodge to not be hit by someone who was thown at her. The space around her was filled with screams and sounds of fists and claws rending flesh and spells burning their targets to cinders. When looking around herself she saw everyone just going at each other. She really doubted if they could tell enemy and the friend apart from each other because she really couldn't. Flandre then turned around and tried get back to the wall but there were so many youkai coming over the wall to fend off the attackers that returning was impossible and instead Flandre was pushed even further into the battlefield. After being knocked to the ground for the fourth time she decided to take flight but even then she didn't manage to fly more than couple of seconds before someone rammed her by accident or on purpose. Things like that really didn't matter when the both were sent crashing to the ground while clinging to each other.

Flandre and that who had attacked her finally let go of each other when they hit the ground. Flandre rolled on the ground until she finally stopped. She then lifted her head from the dirt to see who had hit her. But instead of some stary youkai she saw Mokou's familiar face string at her.

Mokou had a long muddy white hair that had many red ribbons attached to it. She was wearing a torn white blouse and red suspenders that too were badly torn. Mokou stared back at Flandre while lying on the ground herself.

"A-are we fighting each other or...?" Flandre started but she got an answer to her question even before either of them got up from the ground. Flandre saw how Mokou's eyes were constantly focusing and wavering uncontrollably all around like she was trying to decide where to look. Needless to say that it looked pretty disturbing. Mokou then pushed herself up from the ground and lunged herself towards Flandre. Flandre yelped a little, pushed herself onto her feet and moved aside from Mokous attack. Luckily Mokou was a human and so she wasn't the fastest opponent nor the physically strongest Flandre could face but the fact that she was immortal and could wield fire made her a formidable enemy.

After missing Flandre Mokou turned around, lit her hands onto fire and ran towards Flandre again while swinging her hands around creating this mess of fire and cinders around herself. Flandre backed away for couple of steps at first before stopping and suddenly charging towards the uncontrollably flailing Mokou. Mokou's movements were slow when compared to those of Flandre's so when Flandre got onto range it was rather easy for her to throw one powerful punch through Mokou's flailing straight to her chest. Flandre's attack sent Mokou flying backwards for several meters. But Mokou kicked herself up even before she stopped sliding on the ground. Mokou immediately turned her gaze back towards Flandre and charged back towards her. The look on Flandre's face then turned from rather uncomfortable and shocked to dead serious in an instant when she summoned her Lävatein to mid air from a burst of fire. Flandre grabbed the blade and glared at Mokou who was running towards her. Mokou then bursted into flames and it seemed that she didn't care for causing damage to herself.

"I'm sorry, but you leave me with little options," Flandre murmured and took a steady grip from her blade with the both of her hands. Just when Mokou was on the range to grab Flandre, Flandre moved her blade first down so that it was just below Mokou. She then moved it up with a sharp movement so that the tip of her sword was pointing upwards. Her attack impailed Mokou entering her body from her thigh and existing from her forehead. Flandre lifted Mokou from the ground with ease, span around to gather some momentum and then sent Mokou flying back towards the center of the battle separating Mokou from the Lävatein.

Flandre looked how the battlefield now opened before her eyes. The clash between her and Mokou had made it so that she had drifted away from the center of the battle and she could now see the total scale of the conflict. At first she thought that retreating back to the wall would be the best idea but after thinking about it for a moment she realized that there was no point. She needed to help push back the attackers but even that was easier said than done. The fight was so chaotic that she couldn't tell who was fighting who. She could accidentally do more harm than good by attacking someone she wasn't supposed to by mistake.

"Standing here wont do any good either. I have to go in and just hope for the best. Maybe if I'm careful I can learn something about those who have supposedly lost their mind," Flandre thought to herself while looking at the battle before her. She then started to approach the battle again but she was really careful. Things could go wrong really quick if she wasn't careful. She kept looking around herself while approaching which proved more than useful because Flandre noticed just in time how some stray youkai dashed from the chaos straight at her. Flandre was quick to slice it in half from mid air but after hearing those body barts hitting the ground behind her and turning around she could see that the youkai had already healed up completely. The youkai gathered itself from the ground and prepared itself to attack again.

"I really can't stay on the open. I'll just get attacked over and over again. It may seem stupid but the best place hide might just be in the middle of that battle," Flandre thought to herself while watching the youkai stand up from the ground. She then turned around and rushed into the chaos. She had to ram some people to get through them and she had no time to check if they were a friend or not. But nevertheless she was now again in the middle of the raging chaos that she had just recently tried to avoid.

"Maybe I should try to find someone I know I can trust. Try to make a sense out of this mess," Flandre thought to herself and started pushing her way through the raging chaos. She could hear screams and explosions all around her accompanied by an occasional spray of blood that flew from somewhere. Flandre swiped the blood from her face and clothes and kept on going. By the smell she could tell that the blood was that of a human.

"Poor bastard," Flandre muttered to herself while looking at the blood that trickled from the tips of her fingers. Flandre continued onward trying to avoid any unnecessary fighting. She tried to spot anyone she knew wouldn't attack her on sight but that was easier said than done. The visibility was pretty much zero and she didn't dare to yell anyone's name. That would have dragged everyone attention to her and that was the last thing she wanted. She had to stop for a second to figure out how she should approach this situation and it was then when she spotted a familiar face, but this face wasn't that of a person she knew wouldn't attack her. Or at least it wasn't anymore. Flandre had unknowingly stopped just next to Patchouli who too had noitced Flandre only few seconds ago. There was a brief moment when Patchouli and Flandre just stared at each other before Patchouli tried to summon a spell to attack her. Flandre however was quick to act and didn't let Patchouli to do anything. As soon as Patchouli exposed her hands Flandre grabbed her by her wrists to prevent her from firing any spells. Patchouli immediately tried to wrench herself free from Flandre's grib but she had pretty much no chance of succeeding in that because her physical strength was really lacking and Flandre was a vampire with a natural strength of an Oni. This however didn't stop Patchouli from writhing while stuck in Flandre grip which made it hard for Flandre to meet Patchouli's eyes with her own.

"Patchy, please, look at me, I'm not here to hurt you. Please calm down," Flandre tried to calm Patchouli down but her words fell on def ears and Patchouli didn't show any signs of calming down. Not even then when Flandre literally brought her head so close to Patchouli's that the two were only couple of centimeters away from each other.

"Patchy I know you're there so please stop this," Flandre said again but still with no results. Patchouli simply kept writhing in Flandre's grip. Flandre then simply looked down at her feet. She felt suddenly very defeated. The way she had to keep Patchouli still so that she wouldn't attack her made her sad and the fact that Patchouli showed no signs of recognizing her didn't help at all. On top of that she had a problem with releasing Patchouli because she really couldn't just let go since she would attack her straight away.

"You're out of luck. Talking to them wont bring them back. If anything it makes them even more violent," Flandre then heard Marisa's voice yelling from above her. Flandre then looked up and saw Marisa howering above her with her broom.

"We have tried that many tiems but trying to talk to them is futile. Now, you have to get out of there! Jump and grab my broom," Marisa commanded while looking at how Flandre held Patchouli in the middle of the battle. Flandre stared at Marisa for a moment, then at Patchouli and again at Marisa. She then sighed deeply, let go of Patchouli and jumped up and grabbed Marisa's broom in mid air. Immediately when Marisa felt that Flandre was now holding onto her broom she flew back towards the village wall as quickly as she could while avoiding any possible arial attack. Marisa landed as soon as they were on top of the wall again and in a somewhat safe place. Flandre then let go of the broom and Marisa hopped off from it when they were low enough.

"What the heck were you doing down there?" Marisa asked with a bit worried tone and look on her face.

"I-I got pushed down when the attack started and everyone climbed over the wall to join. Besides weren't we supposed to help push them back?" Flandre responded after catching her breath. The look on Marisa's face answered her question long before Marisa could open her mouth.

"Of course not. Those more capable of fighting wait for our target. We're to catch Rumia. Yukari suspects that she might be the reason behind these attacks," Marisa said with serious look on her face while looking down at the battle.

"So everyone down there... is like a diversion... cannon fodder?" Flandre asked carefully.

"Of course not. Those who cannot fight Rumia fight back the rest of the attackers. Their effort is as valuable as our's," Marisa responded and started walking while signing Flandre to follow.

"Come. Yukari and the rest of them have scattered all around the wall. We're supposed to maintain a visual to the treeline at all times and from all directions. Rumia isn't so stupid as to attack with the rest of the absorbed. Usually she has attacked alone and from a random direction. Probably to avoid making too big of a ruckus," Marisa said while looking pretty serious. Flandre soon caught up with her and started walking along side with her.

"So we wait and engage only when we see her?" Flandre asked to make sure.

"Yes. Our main objective is to catch her, not kill her since that is impossible," Marisa responded while keeping her eye on the treeline behind the battlefield. Flandre was about to make a comment about how it would be dangerous for a human to face Rumia but when she laid her eyes onto the wings growing out from Marisa's back she remembered that Marisa wasn't a human anymore. She also remembered the promise she had made. Curing Marisa from her vampirism was Flandre's main priority along with resolving this incident.

They continued walking back and forth on the wall for a while. The battle kept raging under them but Flandre nor Marisa could see even a single trace of Rumia anywhere or any signs that someone else was fighting her on some other part of the wall.

"You really think that she will attack from here. You said that she rarely attacks from the same direction as where the main battle is," Flandre then said while looking how yet again one youkai or human got smashed into the wall almost directly under them.

"There's always a chance so we have to keep an eye on all possible angles," Marisa responded with serious tone and look on her face seemingly not caring about what was going on beneath them right next to the wall.

"But I mean it doesn't even make sense. Why try to attack the human village when the humans are the reaosn why youkai can even maintain themselves in the first place. She is basically trying to commit suicide," Flandre continued with a bit confused look on her face. She understood enough to know what made youkai exist in the first place.

"She isn't after the humans of the village, I can tell you that much," Marisa suddenly said and looked at Flandre with starnge spark in her eyes. Flandre looked back at Marisa with a bit confused look on her face and was just about to open her mouth to say something when they suddenly felt like the wall beneath their feet was about to crumble. The whole structure was shaking for a brief moment and then stopped. Flandre and Marisa both looked at each other. They both then rushed to the edge of the wall to see what was happening there but then it happened again. They had to slow down so they wouldn't fall. Marisa finally reached the edge of the wall around at the same moment when the wall stopped shaking for the second time. Flandre was just behind her and saw clearly how Marisa peeked over the edge of the wall. At that exact moment Flandre saw how pair of hands reached out and grabbed Marisa's head pulling her down from the wall. It all happened so fast that Flandre just stood there for couple of seconds before realizing what had just happened.

"Marisa!? What happened?" Flandre then yelled after finally recovering from the shock. She then rushed straight to the edge of the wall to see what had happened but when she looked down she couldn't see anything else other than the still raging battle beneath her. She waited there for a moment and just watched. She was waiting for some explanation for what had just happened and it didn't take long for her to finally get that. With the corner of her eye Flandre saw something flying out from the battle. Flandre immediately turned her gaze towards that something and realized that it was Marisa. She saw Marisa hitting the grass and then rolling on it for well over dozen meters. Something had thrown her out from the battle. Assumably the same someone who had pulld her down from the wall in the first place.

Flandre then took flight after seeing Marisa stop rolling. But just as she was about to dash towards Marisa to see what had happened she saw something else emerging from the mids of the battlefield. It took Flandre only couple of moments to recognize Rumia who was charging towards Marisa. At that moment Flandre made the split second decision and redirected herself in mid air to ram Rumia straight into the ground instead of heading for Marisa. Rumia hadn't realized that Flandre was heading her way so when Rumia finally saw her it was too late. As Flandre hit Rumia she dragged her together with herself to the ground. Mud and rocks were flying all over the places like bullets as the two crashed into the ground and left a deep trail behind themselves. During those few seconds Flandre couldn't make sense out of the world around her as she rolled on the ground but as soon as she stopped she kicked herself up from the ground only to see Rumia just inches away from her already charging at her ramming Flandre back into the ground. The two rolled again on the ground but this time Flandre kicked Rumia away from her and summoned her Lävatein again before she even stopped. Flandre then launched herself up from the ground and into the air to get an upper hand. While flying upwards Flandre charged her sword and once she was high enough she let the gravity to stop her and pull her back towards the ground. Once Flandre reached the point where gravity stopped her from rising any higher and she started to fall she turned around and unleashed three violent swings with her blade that sent scorching waves of fire from its tip further accompanied by small bullets that looked like blazing comets as they headed towards the ground. Rumia was still on the ground recovering from the impact she had made with the ground and when she had finally gotten up and saw the fire Flandre had sent her way it was already too late for her to dodge. Rumia simply covered her face and stood her ground as Flandre's attacks hit her. When the fire storm was finally over Rumia moved her hands away and looked up. She saw Flandre falling towards her with her blade aimed at her face. Rumia then took a steady stance on the ground, readied her right and and when Flandre was just near enough to hit her Rumia matched Flandre's attack with her own.

A fire shockwave followed after the two hit each other. Flandre was knocked back a little but was able to recover herself and land onto her feet. After she found her balance again Flandre lifted her gaze from her feet and searched for Rumia with her eyes. She finally saw her at the other side of the smouldering patch of grass that the shockwave had left at its wake. Flandre inhaled and exhaled deeply as she stared her opponent deep into her eyes. To be honest she had waited for this rematch and this time she wasn't going to let Rumia escape.

She was just about start heading towards Rumia again when she saw her summoning few dark-red orbs around her. Flandre stopped for a moment to see what Rumia was up to. After few moments Rumia lifted her hands pointed them at Flandre. Her palms started emmiting light-blue hue and it was then when Flandre understood that she had to move. She quickly dashed to her side and was just in time to get away from the massive blue beams that Rumia fired at her direction. The beams looked and even sounded a little like Marisa's Master Spark but the fact that Rumia was firing one from both of her hands made that attack a lot scarier. Just when Flandre thought that she had gotten out of the way of Rumia's attack Rumia started redirecting her massive laser. She was pretty slow at doing so so at first it seemed that Flandre could evade her attacks with ease but it was then when she saw those orbs that Rumia had summoned flying around her. Those orbs kept their distance and circled around Flandre each with their own orbit. Flandre was suspicious about the orbs but she had to worry more about dodging Rumia's laser. Just as she was about to jump out of the way of Rumia's attack the orbs started firing smaller and thinner lasers at Flandre in fast bursts. Flandre managed to dodge Rumia's bigger laser but one of the smaller ones managed to graze her shoulder making it so that she lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Flandre held her shoulder while gathering herself from the ground. She saw how Rumia had once again started to move her laser towards her so Flandre had to retreat again. Flandre quickly looked around herself to see where the orbs around her were so that she could better predict their firing patterns. She then readied herself to kick herself up from the ground but then heard a loud sound coming from slightly above her. It sounded like a comet swooping through the atmosphere towards the ground. Flandre then looked up and saw Marisa flying over her covered in blue energy and leaving a blue trail of light behind her. She was clinging to her broom with both her hands and her feet and was seemingly charging towards Rumia. Rumia seemed to notice this and started to move her lasers towards Marisa. The orbs too flew after her. They started firing at her but Marisa dodged all of the attacks gacefully.

"You're mine," Flandre heard Marisa yelling over the roaring of Rumia's lasers and her own attack. Flandre couldn't see what happened after that because the lasers blocked her vision but judging by the blue flash, the sound of an explosion and a dust cloud Marisa had hit her target. The lasers too vanished at that point. Flandre then stood up from the ground and rushed towards the direction where Marisa had supposedly hit Rumia. Upon reaching the scene of destruction she saw both Marisa and Rumia gathering themselves from the ground. Flandre was about to go and help Marisa to get up but seeing how Rumia summoned the black shadowy blade to her hands that she had wielded during their earlier clash made Flandre rethink her actions. Flandre stopped, turned towards Rumia, readied her Lävatein and threw seemingly slow and powerless swing at Rumia. She did this on purpose so that Rumia would have time to react. Simply hitting her would have just knocked her back a little but making sure that she would block her attack and then press her against the ground would stun her for much longer. Rumia did just as Flandre had predicted. She turned around and blocked Flandre's attack with her own blade. Flandre then started pushing Rumia back towards the muddy ground sparks flying as the two blades grinded against each other.

"Stop this already," Flandre then yelled at Rumia as both of them struggled to overpower one another.

"The world will grind to a halt first," Rumia simply growled back at Flandre. Rumia then suddenly tilted the blade side of her sword to the ground making it so that Flandre accidentally pushed herself off balance as her Lävatein slipped against Rumia's blade. Flandre then fell to all fours beside Rumia. Rumia used this opportunity to throw direct punch to the side of Flandre's head sending her flying a little bit backwards. Flandre was quick to recover but as soon as she had gotten up and turned back towards Rumia she saw that she too had already gotten up. Rumia stared at Flandre for few seconds and then took a quick glare at Marisa who was to the right from Rumia. Flandre could read Rumia's intentions in under a second. Flandre charged her Lävatein and its fiery blade grew three times in length. She then swang it rapidly towards Rumia before she could dash towards Marisa. Rumia was forced to block Flandre's attack. Flandre however didn't stop. She started throwing more and more swings at Rumia and eventually it turned into a swordfight that was beautiful on its own sadistic way. Both blades seeking the way into their opponents while constantly being blocked and parried by the other. After few moments one could no longer tell the difference from the whirl of black, red, orange and yellow as Flandre and Rumia threw attacks at each other in such pase that it was impossible to follow for a human eye.

This continued until the two finally struck their blades against each other so that they couldn't pull them free immediately. Both Rumia and Flandre struggled against each other trying to force the other out of balance so they could pull their weapon free and land a clear strike but neither of them was succesful. This would have continued for several minutes straigth if it wasn't for the fact that Rumia noticed some blue glow with the corner of her eye. She then turned her head towards this glow and saw Marisa charging some spell hands pointed at them. Flandre noticed it too but before she could do anything Rumia had already turned her attention back to Flandre and tackled her just when Flandre was turning her gaze back towards Rumia. Flandre reeled back a little which gave Rumia an opportunity to pull her blade with all she got. Flandre's grip on her Lävatein was so weak at the moment that Rumia pulled the weapon out of her hands. She then turned towards Marisa while cluthing her black blade with both of her hands as Flandre's sword fell next to her feet. Rumia paid a little mind to it because Marisa was done with charging her spell and fired it straight at Rumia. The spell that Marisa fired wasn't her Dark Spark nor Master Spark and instead the Non Directional Laser but this time instead of being non directional all four beams were concentrated towards Rumia. Rumia simply lifted her blade with its tip pointed towards Marisa and when the beam Marisa had fired collided with Rumia's sword the beam split and narrowly missed Rumia after she had blocked it with her sword. Marisa kept the beam going in hopes of exhausting Rumia but Rumia had different idea. Rumia suddenly turned her sword that redirected the scattering beams that had been formed when Marisa's laser hit Rumia's sword. Rumia's blade, even if it was as black a night, worked like a mirror against Marisa's laser and turning it caused the beam to be sent back at its source. Marisa had no time to react and she was struck by her own attack. Marisa was sent flying several meters and hit the ground with her back and body still smoking a little. Flandre on the other hand was still gathering herself after she was tackled and her weapon was pulled from her hands. She got up just in time to witness how Rumia turned towards her after knocking out Marisa. Rumia stared at Flandre for a moment before she squatted down and seemingly was about to grab Flandre's blade from the ground. The serious and worried look on Flandre's face then swiched to grin. As soon as Rumia wrapped her palm around the handle of the Lävatein a hissing sound could be heard and smoke could be seen rising from Rumia's hand. Rumia let out a deafening scream and fell to her knees while holding her burn palm. Rumia's palm was smouldering and soon the tips of her finger started turning into ash and scattering into wind. Rumia looked how her hand turned black and crumbled away all the way to her wrist until it started healing. But because the healing didn't stop the burn she was unable to regrow her finger since each time they started healing they turned into ash. Rumia then lifted her gaze from her hand and looked at Flandre with hateful look on her face before letting out another scream.

Flandre just looked at Rumia as she screamed on the ground. The grin on her face had vanished and now she just stared blankly at her. Rumia then stood up from the ground although be it painstakingly slowly and still holding her burning hand. Rumia then started heading towards Flandre. Flandre simply readied herself and prepared for what Rumia was planning but all of this had made both of them completely oblivious how a figure was approaching them from the treeline. Rumia was increasing her speed as she headed towards Flandre but when she was about five meters away from her she felt sharp but immensly powerful hit on the side of her head. Flandre backed away in shock and saw how Rumia was launched through the air by this hit. Rumia eventually hit the wall of the village. It was then when Flandre finally looked at what or who had hit Rumia. Needless to say that she was quite surprised when she saw Kasen standing where Rumia had just stood holding the hand that was not wrapped in bandages.

"Seems like my timing was perfect," Kasen uttered with serious tone and look on her face while watching how Rumia was slowly standing up.

"Kasen wh-what are y-," Flandre started with a bit confused and shocked look on her face but was unterrupted by Kasen who said, "I'm here to deliver a message and I'm afraid that it isn't a pleasant one but that can wait for now. Let's take her out." Flandre looked at Kasen for a second and then nodded and looked at Rumia with determined look on her face. Rumia's hand had stopped to burn and her hand had started to heal. However she had no time to use this to her adavntage when Flandre and Kasen both charged at her. Rumia simply covered her face with her arms and prepared for the impact. Upon reaching her Kasen and Flandre both grabbed Rumia by her arms and slammed her with full force against the wall behind Rumia. The wall shook as Rumia crashed against it and let out a growl. She dropped to the ground but didn't fell to her knees. Flandre and Kasen then both started throwing kicks and punches one after another at Rumia. Rumia simply covered her face again but when few hits started getting through her block. She tried to fight back and threw few hand swipes towards her attackers. These however were clumsy and easy to dodge and instead of hitting her target Rumia ended up getting both of her hands grabbed, pulled to her side and then two sharp knee kicks thrown to her stomach. They then trew Rumia away from the wall and to the muddy grass. Rumia lied there on her stomach for few seconds before standing up. It was then when Flandre saw how bruised Rumia actually was but apparently she didn't care. She prepared herself and took a fighting stance as Kasen and Flandre approached her again. Kasen then took few running steps and aimed a punch towards Rumia's face. Rumia however blocked this but this left her open on Flandre's side who landed a clean blow to her side. Rumia backed off a one step which allowed Kasen to land her punch to Rumia's forehead. This knocked her out of balance and Flandre followed this by kicking Rumia to her chest which was followed by Kasen roundhouse kicking Rumia to the side of her head.

Rumia found herself lying on the ground on her stomach. She could hear Kasen and Flandre approaching her from behind. Rumia was very bruised and had started to tire. She had realized that she couldn't win against Kasen and Flandre and that the only reasonable action at this point was to flee. She suddenly jumped up from the ground leaving a blast of fire behind herself. Flandre covered her face and backed off a little but Kasen wasn't tricked by this. She readied her right arm that was wrapped in bandages. The bandages then flew forward towards Rumia grabbing her by her feet preventing her from escaping by flying. Rumia immediately looked behind herself to see what was going on but it was already too late for her because Kasen pulled her back towards the ground with one sharp and powerful motion of her hand. Rumia was pulled back with incredible speed and it seemed that she would hit Kasen but Kasen was ready. Kasen readied her left arm and when Rumia was just about to hit her she landed a punch straight to Rumia's face with all her strength. The sound it created resembled that of a bomb exploding and it created such a shockwave that it could very well have been one.

The punch left Rumia falling to the ground and Kasen holding her hand. Flandre then approached the two to see what had happened. Kasen seemed to be okay but Rumia had clearly seen better days. Nevertheless she had already started to recover although be it slowly. Flandre then quickly rushed to Rumia and grabbed her by her left arm.

"Come. We can't kill her so we need to hold her. If we both hold her thight she wont be able to escape," Flandre said while looking at Kasen. Kasen looked at Flandre and nodded. She then walked up to Rumia and grabbed her right arm. They then lifted Rumia from the ground and apparently she was still unable to walk on her own since her feet were dragging on the ground as they started to carry her towards the village. Flandre then looked around herself to try and find Marisa. She soon found her sitting on the same spot as where the redirected beam had left her. Apparently she had regained consciousness but she was still sitting there holding her head. The battle was still raging near the wall but they were far enough from it so that it didn't pose any real danger to them as they carried Rumia. They planned to drag her to the wall and then inform the others that they had caught Rumia but to their surprise they suddenly heard Rumia laughing while they approached the wall.

"Hehehehe, what do you expect to gain from capturing me?" Rumia asked with taunting and tired grin on her bruised face.

"We'll figure something out," Flandre simply responded with serious tone and look on her face while looking at tired looking Rumia.

"You think you have won? You haven't won even this battle let alone the war. You're into a quite disappointment if you think you'll gain some leverage out of this," Rumia said with that taunting grin still on her face.

"It never hurts to try," Flandre simply responded without even looking at Rumia. They then kept dragging Rumia while she kept grinning. Flandre was about to ask Kasen what kind of a message she was bringing and from who but decided to ask about it later. She didn't know if the message was for everyone to hear. She then simply looked at the battlefield to their left. It seemed like there had been no major changes happening while they had been fighting Rumia. The battle seemed like it would continue for a while. She simply looked at the battle for few seconds before turning her gaze back towards the wall before them. But it was then when Flandre and Kasen felt how the earth started to shake beneath their feet. At first it felt like an earth quake but it didn't take them long to figure out that it was something else. Kasen then happened to take a look at Rumia and noticed that the grin on her face was wider than before.

"Flandre, the wall," Kasen then yelled after lifting her gaze from Rumia's face towards the wall near the battlefield. Flandre too lifted her gaze from the ground and looked to the direction where Kasen was looking. They saw how few of those crazed youkai had started to ram themselves against the wall. Right about on the same spot where Rumia had first pulled Marisa down from on top of the wall.

"Hehehehe, you think I pummeled that pitiful wall just so that I could get your attention?" Rumia then said after laughing sarcastically.

"It was just to make the work easier for them," Rumia said and glared at Flandre and made that taunting grin again. Flandre and Kasen stopped there and looked at each other. They knew that they needed to rush to help to protect the wall but they also knew that they couldn't just let go of Rumia or she would escape.

"Flandre, we need to prioritise the wall. If that falls I fear the village may become a slaughter house," Kasen said with worried tone and look on her face. Flandre looked at Kasen and then at the wall. She was just about to say something when a confident grin grew onto her face. She then turned her gaze bac towards Kasen and Rumia.

"There's no need to worry. Let's continue," Flandre said and continued dragging Rumia. Kasen looked at Flandre with confused and shocked look on her face.

"Flandre, the wall will crumble in no time," Kasen insisted while looking at Flandre but Flandre kept that confident smile on her face.

"Exactly, and when it does the victory will be ours," Flandre said and giggled a little. Kasen looked at Flandre with utterly confused look on her face and tilted her head. Rumia too looked at Flandre and the grin that had been on her face started to vanish. Kasen and Flandre stopped finally and turned towards the youkai who were pummeling the wall. Kasen looked really worried but Flandre just watched while grinning. The youkai rammed themselves against the wall with all they got while the humans and youkai fighting to save the village did all they could to stop them but every time they managed to take down one two replaced it and soon the one that had been just taken down joined again. The youkai then finally made the final effort to break the wall by charging towards it all at once. There was a loud crashing sound and the earth started shaking again. The battle fell quiet for the first time since before it started. Everyone looked how few pieces of stone fell from the wall as cracks started to progress all across the point on the wall where the youkai had struck. Then suddenly like from one command one portion of the wall crumbled down like a skyscraper that had just been blown up. Everyone looked at this sight in silence before the silence was broken by the screams and yells of those youkai who started charging into the village paying little mind to those who had just fought against them couple seconds ago. But even before even one youkai could set its foot to the the side of the village a massive shockwave knocked back all of those who tried to get into the village. The shockwave was followed by a deafening bang. Then it all went silent yet again.

"I knew it. She would keep her promise," Flandre said with confident smile on her face while she, Kasen and Rumia all looked at what was happening at the wall.

As the youkai started gathering themselves from the ground a figure of a woman stepped out from the hole that had been punched through the wall. It was Junko. Kasen and Rumia had never seen her before so they didn't know what their reaction should have been. They all just watched how Junko made few gestures with her hands and then a spectral, paper-fan looking image formed behind her back. It looked like it was made from purple flames and it resembled a lot the one of Yuyuko's attacks. Flandre knew exactly what was going to happen next.

"Out of my way," Junko uttered without even raising her voice. But even if she didn't shout or yell Flandre and everyone could hear it as though those words had been said just beside their ears. Once Junko had spoken those words all of the remaining youkai and humans who had their sanity left fled away from Junko. Her words had been so powerful that everyone who understood them knew to obey. But those who didn't understand, the crazed youkai and other beings simply gathered themselves from the ground and prepared themselves for another attack. Once the first ones got up again they immediately charged at Junko but it was then when Junko unleashed her attack. A barrage of uniaginably fast and really large red energy missiles were fired from the fan-like spectral object from behind Junko. It was just like Flandre had seen back in Lunar Capital. Those energy missiles tore their way through the hoards of youkai ripping them apart and exploding them to bits. Everytime one healed back up another missile struck the healed youkai braking it into pieces. Junko kept this up while the youkai kept trying to reach her without success. In fact Junko's attack was starting to push the youkai back little by little. The youkai however were presistent and kept on attacking but no matter how hard they tried Junko's projectiles ripped them to shreds each time. It was finally when first of the attacking youkai decided to flee that the others decided to follow. One by one the attackers gave up and fled into the treeline trying to escape Junko's barrage. After five minutes the last youkai had disappeared into the forest and Junko could finally stop her attacking. The battlefield fell finally quiet.

They all looked at what was left of the bettlefield. Corpses were laying all around. Others were in one piece while the other had been pummeled beyond recognition. Rumia too was looking at the scene before her and it was then when she finally realized that the attack had been countered and she had been caught. She made few movements but upon realizing that she didn't have enough physical strength left to match Flandre's and Kasen's grip she had to give up.

"Who... Who is she?" Kasen then finally asked while looking at Junko.

"She's named Junko. You have probably never he-," Flandre started but she didn't need to explain any further when Kasen realized who it was.

"Oh so she's that person. Well now. I guess there are even more surprises than you turning out to be alive. Which brings me to a question, what in the world happened to you," Kasen said and looked at Flandre with concerned look on her face.

"That's eh... a long story. But one of the reasons I was able to return is Junko," Flandre responded with troubled tone and look on her face. Kasen looked at her first and then at Junko. She then shook her head while looking as confused as before before they started dragging Rumia again. More and more youkai and humans started to gather onto the wall to see what had happened outside and seeing how Kasen and Flandre had captured Rumia made many individuals lift their fist up into the air and cheer in celebration of their victory. Flandre then saw Marisa too walking back towards the village. She was happy to learn that Marisa had gotten herself up and wasn't severly injured. But even though they had seemingly won the look on Marisa's face wasn't happy. She kept staring directly forward not paying attention to the corpses laying on the ground nor to Kasen and Flandre dragging Rumia towards the village. She just walked and kept her distance to them. This seemed odd but seeing how people like Meiling, Koakuma, Okina, Youmu and Alice started popping out from the growd made Flandre grin. They all hopped down from the wall and rushed towards the tired looking vampire and Oni. They also saw Yukari standing on the wall and by the looks of it she was content and maybe even surprised looking. Upon reaching Flandre and Kasen Ran and Meiling offered to hold Rumia from there on. Flandre and Kasen agreed to it and kept walking beside them as they dragged Rumia further. They then saw how Yukari had disappeared from the wall and was currently walking out from the hole that had been made to the wall. Marisa actually just walked past her when she walked through the hole. The look on Marisa's face was grim. She was currently pretty clueless what to do. She had hoped to get a revenge on Rumia for what she had done years ago but now when she was publicly captured she didn't know how she would exact her revenge without accidentally spilling her sercets. She also saw Reimu walking towards the captured Rumia right after she had walked past Yukari. Reimu seemed pretty pale and was holding her head. By the looks of it she was maybe feeling ill.

"Maybe she should get some rest," Marisa thought to herself as she looked over her shoulder as Reimu approached Ran, Meiling, Kasen and Flandre who were bringing Rumia to be interrogated by Yukari. Marisa walked into the village, turned right and walked along side the wall searching for where was the closest makeshift staircase that led on top of the wall. She thought that it would be best to keep her eyes on what was going on with Rumia. Marisa climbed to the wall after finding the stairs and watched the scene before her eyes together with few human and youkai guards that too were standing on the wall. It seemed like Yukari hadn't reached Rumia yet. Marisa also saw how that Renko woman was following her.

"Humans turned into youka and a human turned into a god, eh? Then why is it so bad for me to hunt immortality?" Marisa muttered to herself while looking how the two walked towards Rumia.

"But still... I'm a bit worried. If Gensokyo was created just to bring her back to Earth does it mean that it has exhausted its usefulness?" Marisa thought to herself half aloud with worried look on her face. She kept walking back and forth a short distance while waiting to see what would happen. She then happened to look at the village behind her. The people had started to come out from their houses to see what had happened. She knew that the joy of victory would be short lived after people would start to find out how many actually fell in the battle. Though so far everyone seemed blissfully unaware of the bloodbath outside the walls. Her eyes were then caught by a group of children that had apparently managed to find a ball in such a short time and were currently playing on one of the village alleys. The kids seemed happy about the fact that the battle was over for now and they could continue their game. Marisa sat down to watch this sight for a while while resting her head on her palms while leaning against her feet with her elbows. Watching the kids play felt somehow mesmerizing until she suddenly heard something. A laughter. It came from the same direction as where the kids were playing.

"Wait... that laughter... I'ver heard it somewhere before," Marisa then uttered and looked around herself trying to find the source of that laughter. It seemed that it came from where the kids were playing but she could not be sure. She stood up to take a better look. She heard the laughter again and again. It sounded so familiar. She knew that she should remember why it felt so familiar. It was bothering her so much. After looking around for few moments she finally saw it. A dark figure could be seen scampering through an alley between the buildings.

"Of course! It is that second entity that I saw at Yuuka's place! What is it doing here? And why... can I see it without lightning...? Wait... the entity, the host. I can see it because they're at close proximity of each other. Oh no, this can be pretty bad," Marisa then almost yelled. Few youkai and humans looked at her with a bit confused looks on their faces but Marisa wasn't going to stop and explain what she had just seen. She needed to get to Yukari and the others to tell that the other entity had reappeared. She turned around, hopped off from the wall and headed straight towards the group gathered around the captured Rumia.

A good distance away the others were arguing about what they should do with Rumia. The obvious answer was to imprison her but how that would be done was unclear. But what was clear was that they needed answers only Rumia could give them. For an example why and how the 'absorbed' were formed and how that could be stopped from happening. But so far Rumia had stayed silent. People had started to get frustrated. Especially Okina.

"We wont ask you again! Who is responsible for all of this and how do we stop it!?" Okina hissed at Rumia who just turned her face away a little bit so that the spittle flying from Okina's mouth wouldn't hit her face.

"Hahaha, you've said that three times already and I'm pretty sure you'll ask it three times more," Rumia responded and grinned.

"Are you now? Let's see how sure you're after this," Okina hissed as some blue sparks started circling around her hand. She was just about to hit Rumia when Yukari grabbed her hand and looked at her.

"That's enough," Yukari said with strict tone and look on her face. Okina just looked back at her, rolled her eyes and stepped backwards. They hadn't gotten anywhere. Rumia just didn't want to talk and to be honest they didn't even expect her to talk.

"Why wont you talk?" Kasen then asked and looked at Rumia with serious look on her face.

"Why? Hehe, give me a one good reason why I should talk," Rumia responded and looked at Kasen with sarcastic smile.

"We're trying to help. We're trying to save this world from collapsing and that world includes you. We're trying to save you as well," Kasen insisted but Rumia just laughed more.

"Are you truly so naive that you think after all this that I'd care to see the world that cast me out survive? Do you really think that I'd have done any of this if I didn't want this," Rumia hissed and stared at Kasen.

"Then why do you want this? And what does the human village have to do with any of it? Why wont you leave them be?" Flandre continued Kasen's questions.

"Ha! Are you so self centered that you think this is about your pathetic little village? I couldn't care less about them. They're livestock after all," Rumia said with taunting grin on her face while looking everyone around her.

"Dare to say that again?" Youmu then retorted and pointed her weapon at Rumia. Yukari just stepped closer to Youmu and touched her blade so that she undertsood to stand down.

"It is a bargain. One's goals can be bought... and put to good use," Rumia said and laughed a bit more.

"What do you mean by that?" Kasen asked with her arms akimbo.

"Honestly, I couldn't care even less if the world ended or not. But I have to want it if I want to get what I want. What I truly want," Rumia said and grinned a bit more. Everyone looked at her and waited for her to continue.

"I want to right the wrongs that have been done against me. Those responsible for all the years I've lost will perish. And I wont rest until they do," Rumia said with much more intense glare in her eyes. She was really serious when she said that.

"Revenge, is it? Somehow I feel like I got a déjà-vu right now," Flandre said and shook her head. It was then when they heard someone approaching them from behind. They turned around and saw Marisa running towards them. They looked at her with confused looks on their face. She then stopped before them and took a second to catch her breath. But during those few seconds Rumia too could see who had just arrived.

"Why are you in a such a hurry?" Kasen asked and looked at Marisa and tilted her head.

"It's that... *pant... that-," Marisa started but Rumia interrupted her quickly.

"Go on. Say it. You came to finish me off, didn't you. Take your time... Though, you may not have enough," Rumia said with almost enthused tone and look on her face. Marisa just glared at her and then looked back at the others.

"Back at the village, I-," Marisa started but she didn't get to finish her sentence when Rumia interrupted her once again.

"Yes, back in the village. You remember, as do I. The fiery inferno. Hahaha, you knew, even back then that you couldn't defeat me," Rumia continued and stared straigth at Marisa. Marisa stared back at her for couple of seconds.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Marisa responded with hateful tone and look on her face. She then turned back towards the others but Rumia was presistent.

"The night we clashed, I'm looking forward of finishing what was started. Your friend was so soft... tender. Almost shame how easily she fell apart. I'm expecting you to be a little... tenacious," Rumia said and flashed her teeth at Marisa. Everyone looked at Rumia and then at Marisa with confused looks on their faces. All but Yukari and Alice.

"You... you haven't told them, have you? Well now, should make this all the more interesting," Rumia said and the grin on her face widened. Rumia then looked at each and everyone in to their eyes one after another and then looked at the nauseous looking Reimu.

"You know how ironic it is? That you're friends with the very same person who failed to protect your mother? Mother who decided to separate another mother from her daughter," Rumia hissed and stared at Reimu. Reimu was holding her head and looked pretty pale but she still looked back at Rumia.

"Marisa... You really didn't think you could evade the truth forever, did you? Your last body... it was so sweet. It's always the first one that gets one hooked, wont you agree. You too still remember your first one don't you?" Rumia said with wide open eyes and turned her gaze from Reimu to Marisa. Marisa just looked back at Rumia but didn't respond. She had started to sweat a little.

"What do you think went through the minds of those whose bodies you stole? Just because of your own selfishness?" Rumia continued and budged a little like trying to get closer to Marisa but she was held in place by Ran and Meiling.

"Oh, I'm sure the daughter of the Kirisame family was happy when you kicked her out from her body," Rumia continued with that taunting tone and look on her face.

"S-stop this," Marisa stuttered and backed away a little but this made everyone attention to turn to her,

"Marisa, what is she on about?" Meiling then asked with confused tone.

"I- I-," Marisa stuttered but she couldn't say anything else before Alice interruoted her. She stared at Marisa with cold glare before opening her mouth, "Everything Rumia has said is true. Marisa, why don't you tell us all about your best friend and how you met."

"What? W-what does this have to do with me?" Reimu then asked with confused tone. She was still holding her head.

"Not you. You'r mother. Her name was Reimu too," Alice said and looked at Reimu with serious look on her face. Reimu seemed wince a little and then turned towards the uncomfortable looking Marisa.

"H- how is that even possible? We're about the same age," Reimu then stuttered with even more confused look on her face.

"Her body may be the same age but she has been capturing new ones only to keep her consciousness alive. Reimu... your friend is a killer," Alice said and then glared at Marisa who looked back at Alice with a pretty shocked look on her face.

"What!?" Marisa exclaimed and took another step backwards. Kasen then turned towards Marisa and said," Please let her finish."

"I've known her for long and have been fully aware of her doings but haven't done anything for I believed that she wasn't doing it because she was evil. She is actually so old that your mother was very young when she first met Marisa who on the other hand was very old even back then. Your mother however was able to make Marisa change her ways... or so I thought," Alice continued with grim spark in her eye while looking at Marisa.

"The last time she switched bodies she invaded and took over the daughter of the Kirisame family. She however did it unprepared because of her panic. She had just escaped Rumia as she had killed Reimu, Marisa's friend and our Reimu's mother. She became trapped in her current body. If she wants to stay alive even after this body expires she has to find a way to create an immortality potion or find a way to get out from that body before it dies," Alice continued and then stopped to look at everyone around her.

"What are you getting at here?" Youmu asked with a bit unbelieving and doubtful tone and look on her face.

"The child that was found murdered just before everything started. It was no youkai for a youkai couldn't have gotten into human village without being seen. It was Marisa. In her desperation to escape her body she snuck in and killed one of the kids in the village to try and see if she could take over her body. Obviously she failed," Alice said with accusatory tone and turned towards Marisa. Marisa then backed away yet another step.

"That's a pretty bold accusation. You should have even more proof to back it up," Kasen replied with serious look on her face as she stepped closer to Alice.

"I do. Isn't it strange how she was the first one to see her doppelgangers? Or what about the fact that she got Flandre to turn her into a vampire? A convenient way to prevent her body from aging," Alice said and kept glaring at Marisa.

"You lie! I saw the kids you kidnapped from the village in your basement," Marisa then suddenly yelled and pointed at Alice with frantic tone and look on her face.

"You did? Well then, look around and tell me how many of people you see believing you," Alice responded and turned around and looked at the others. Everyone stood there silent looking at Marisa and then at each other not knowing what to do. Rumia on the other hand was still being held on place by Ran and Meiling but now she was chuckling to herself.

"No. No! You have to believe me! I have nothing to do with this! I saw the kids! Alice has them," Marisa yelled with frantic tone and stared at Alice while backing away.

"I'm sure we'll find the truth about all of this in time," Okina said while looking at Marisa with serious look on her face.

"No! You have to listen to me! The humans may be in danger! The other entity has returned, I saw it," Marisa continued. It was then when everyone looked at each other again.

"Hold her. We'll question her after Rumia," Yukari said with casual tone while looking at chuckling Rumia before her. Kasen then looked at Yukari, then at Marisa and sighed. She took a step towards her but this was enough for Marisa. Marisa spread her wings and took off from the ground without saying a word. She wasn't going let herself be captured. Youmu quickly looked at Yukari and was about to charge after Marisa but Yukari simply touched her shoulder and signed her not to follow Marisa.

"Don't worry. We'll get back to her when we're done with Rumia," Yukari said with calm tone and look on her face.

"But... if what Alice said was true...," Youmu started but before she could continue Yukari responded to her.

"None of it was new information to me. I've been fully aware of Marisa's past," Yukari said and looked at Youmu.

"Then why haven't you done anything about her?" Okina asked with doubtful look on her face and her arms akimbo. She wasn't happy that Yukari let Marisa get away.

"Because she unknowingly took care of my biggest mistake," Yukari said and the tone of her voice got a lot more serious. It was then when Renko stepped closer to Yukari and touched her shoulder with a slight smile on her face.

"You've grown into a quite a dictator," Renko said with a bit amused tone and look on her face. Yukari then turned her face at her friend.

"I had to. This world would fall out of balance really quickly if law and order aren't held up by anyone. Youkai simply have forgotten the first reason they were created. They're not fit to be part of human society," Yukari responded and looked back at Rumia.

"You have always been like this. Have you ever tried?" Renko said with curious grin on her face while resting her head on Yukari's shoulder.

"Yes. I have. I remember how you always had fantasies about utopia where the demons we had seen in that mysterious world could live among the humans. I remember how you wanted that to happen so bad... so I gave it a try," Yukari said and sighed deeply.

"H-how did it go? And what mistake you mentioned?" Youmu then asked again and looked at the two with confused look on her face.

"You're looking at the results and the mistake right now," Yukari said and looked at Rumia before her who was looking back at her.

"What do you mean?" Alice then asked. She had kept her eyes on the treeline to see if Marisa would come back or had stayed near them.

"I admit it, I take full responsibility for Rumia's doings because I'm the one who created her," Yukari said and stared at Rumia. Everyone then turned towards Yukari and like from one signal everyone exclaimed, "What!?" Even Rumia herself.

"In my idiocy I thought that a human giving birth to a youkai would change the way the youkai are seen. Oh, how wrong one can be," Yukari said and shook her head while looking down.

"B- but how did you...?" Alice asked with confused and unbelieving look on her face.

"I simply started giving power to an embryo turning it into a youkai in its mother's womb. I even gave it an ability to control light. A thing most youkai try to avoid but... I guess it is in youkai nature to fear the light... To misuse the gift to shield herself from the gift I gave to her," Yukari said while looking at Rumia with serious look on her face.

"A gift? A GIFT!? The hell are you on about!? What you did to me ruined my life! I was driven out of my home, separated from the only people who cared about me and you dare to say that you gave me a gift!?" Rumia yelled at Yukari seemingly in rage. Yukari however just stared back at her coldly.

"A gift that you misused in your insolence. The moment you used your power to shield yourself from the light for the first time I knew that this all would end in tears. Youkai aren't meant to dwell in human society," Yukari said without changing the look on her face.

"So to get me out of your way you decided to make me quilty to all of it!? Your arrogance... the human arrogance... I can smell it from you. Humans... they fear what they cannot understand... that's where we youkai are born. But not me. I wasn't born out of fear. Humans learned to fear me, yet you claim that I brought this upon myself. Bullshit! Humans are weak, fragile and arrogant. They deserve every last scourge imaginable," Rumia retorted to Yukari with fury burning in her eyes. Yukari simply sighed to Rumia's responce.

"That would include your parents. You really want everything you've done to all humans to happen to them?" Yukari asked with cold tone and look on her face. Rumia fell silent after she heard Yukari saying that.

"You made yourself into the villain that you are. Marisa was more than right when she finished the sealing that Reimu started," Yukari said and turned around, away from Rumia. Renko then turned towards Rumia with much more serious look on her face.

"What will you do to her?" Renko asked with a bit curious but mostly worried tone and look on her face.

"I'll seal her away for good. The seal on her head just wont do," Yukari responded without even looking at Renko.

"That's pretty cruel of you," Renko responded with a hint of worry in her tone.

"I have to be or we will be repeating the same mistakes over and over again," Yukari said and turned towards Rumia again but when she did she was surprised to see a grin on Rumia's face yet again.

"Seal me away? So be it. But... knowing that you took everything from my life, I think I'll take a fair bit of your's with me," Rumia said while staring at Yukari. Yukari simply stared back at her not understanding what she meant until they heard something touching the ground beside them. They turned towards the sound to see what it was and when they did they saw how Reimu had sat down. She was still holding her head and had started to sweat. They then turned back towards Rumia only to find her laughing.

"What are you doing to her," Kasen then exclaimed with shocked and even a bit furious tone and look on her face.

"Hehehe, she'll be absorbed by her own timeline soon enough. Let's see how you'll react when the last of your precious shrine maidens turns against you," Rumia hissed and glared at Yukari with hateful grin on her face. Something snapped in Yukari head for it was at that moment when the look on her face turned to furious and she prepared herself.

"I'll seal you away before you can do anything to her," Yukari retorted and prepared a charm she had pulled out.

"Do that and nothing will change! My influence on this world is stronger than any seal you can throw at me! I'll turn every single being within Gensokyo against you one ofter another and there's nothing you can do to stop me," Rumia yelled back at Yukari followed by almost an insane laughter and glare.

"Give me a reason to try," Yukari retorted and prepared herself. While the two were threatening each other Kasen and Youmu were approaching ill looking Reimu who was sitting on the ground. Kasen reached out for Reimu to touch her shoulder but Reimu backed away.

"Please, Reimu, try to think clearly. I'm here to help you," Kasen said with worried tone and look on her face.

"N- no, stay away. All of you," Reimu said while looking at Kasen and Youmu frantically. Kasen and Youmu looked at each other in confusion.

"All of... us?" Youmu asked while looking at Kasen.

"She sees our doppelgangers. This is bad," Kasen responded and looked at sickly Reimu. Yukari on the other hand approached Rumia with threatening glare. Rumia simply looked back at Yukari and made the same taunting grin as before.

"I'll make you wish you were never born," Yukari hissed and glared down at Rumia to which Rumia simply responded, "I already do." The two glared at each other as Yukari approached Rumia who showed no signs of resisting. Just as the two were only two meters apart from each other Flandre jumped between the two. She had stayed silent so far. Even when Marisa was being accused of being behind all of this she had just stood on the background not interfering but now she couldn't stand back anymore.

"STOP IT! Both of you," Flandre yelled and looked at both Yukari and Rumia who didn't seem all happy that Flandre had gotten between them.

"Out of the way, this does not concern you," Yukari said with strict tone and look on her face.

"But it does. What you're about to do concerns all of us. So before you kill each other let me ask a question from both of you," Flandre said and once again looked at both Yukari and Rumia. Both of them simply looked at Flandre and waited for her to continue.

"When you've killed all the baddies, and when it's all fair and just, when you have finally made the world exactly the way you want it. What will you do with people such as yourself... the trouble makers? How will you protect your perfect realm... from the next one?" Flandre asked and stared coldly at the two. Yukari simply looked at Flandre and tilted her head but Rumia just chuckled a bit.

"I'll prevail," She simply said and shook her head like the answer to the question would have been the most obvious one.

"Oh, will you? Well... maybe you will prevail. But no one does so forever. Your time on the throne is fleeting... and the cycle is born a new. So come on, break the cycle," Flandre said while kneeling before Rumia so that their eyes were on the same level.

"Why are you still talking?" Rumia asked with almost arrogant tone and look on her face to which Flandre responded by standing up and saying, "Because I want you to see and I'm almost there."

"You know what I see, Flandre?" Rumia asked and turned her gaze towards Yukari.

"A tyrant... A tyrant who took everything from me. This is my chance to right the wrongs-," Rumia started but Yukari interrupted her before she could finish.

"For me as well," Yukari said and glared at Rumia without blinking even once. Flandre then looked at them and then backed away few steps so that she got a bit closer to Ran. She then suddenly smacked Ran with the back of her hand so that she was forced to let go of Rumia and back off a little. This made it so that Rumia got her other hand free which she used to her advantage to wrench herself free from Meiling's grip as well. Rumia threw Meiling further away from herself, stood up and turned towards Yukari.

"And we have fingers on buttons! Are you feeling lucky, are you ready to play the game!? Who's gonna be quickest, who's gonna be luckiest!?" Flandre suddenly yelled with her arms streched to her side like announcing the start of a war.

"What are you doing!? This is not a game," Yukari then yelled as she watched how Rumia now stood free before her.

"No, it certainly isn't Yukari and I mean that most sincerely. Look, she has stood there for four seconds already and hasn't attacked yet. There has to be some reason in that thick skull," Flandre said and stared at Yukari. She then looked back at Rumia who still looked angry but somewhat confused.

"Why are you doing this?" Rumia then asked while staring directly at Yukari.

"Yes, I'd also like to know that too, why," Yukari added before turning her gaze from Rumia back to Flandre. She didn't seem happy about the situation.

"Beacuse it's not a game, Yukari! ...This is a scale model of war! Every war, ever fought, right there before your eyes. Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die!" Flandre yelled and looked at both Yukari and Rumia with almost furious look on her face.

"You don't know whose children are going to scream and burn! How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill until everybody does what they were all supposed to do from the very beginging? SIT DOWN AND TALK," Flandre yelled while constantly looking between Yukari and Rumia. She then sighed deeply and swiped her face with both of her hands before taking few quick steps closer to Rumia and looking her directly in the eyes.

"Listen to me, listen. I just... I just want you to think. You know what thinking is? It's just a fancy word for changing your mind," Flandre said with pleading tone and look on her face. To which Rumia simply responded with her eyes still glued onto Yukari's, "I will not change my mind."

"Then you'll die stupid. Alternatively, you could walk away, walk right away from here and stand your silly revolution down," Flandre said with much more calm tone and look on her face.

"NO! I'm not stopping this Flandre. I started this, I will not stop this. Do you honestly think they'll let me go after what I've done!?" Rumia asked with much more annoyed tone.

"You're all the same you screaming little kids, you know that. 'Look at me, I'm unforgiveable,' well here's the unforseeable, I forgive you," Flandre said while looking Rumia straight into her eyes.

"After all you've done... I forgive you," Flandre added and backed away a little. There was long silnece when Rumia and Flandre just stared at each other.

"You don't understand... You will never understand," Rumia uttered while looking back at Flandre. She didn't want to take Flandre's forgiveness.

"I don't understand? Are you kidding? Me? Of course I understand," Flandre said and almost laughed, although sarcastically.

"I mean, you call this a war? This funny little thing? This is not a war! I fought in a bigger wars than you'll ever know! I've done worse things than you could ever do! And when I close my eyes...," Flandre yelled and finally turned away from Rumia while covering her face with her hand. It almost seemed like she was about to cry.

"I hear more screams than anyone will EVER be able to count," Flandre then continued and turned back towards Rumia and Yukari. The look on her face had gotten a lot darker.

"And you know what you do with that pain? Shall I tell you against who you should channel it? You hold it THIGHT! Till it burns your very mind. And you say this, no one else will ever have to live like this, no one else will ever have to feel this pain. Not on my watch," Flandre said while bringing her face mere centimeters away from Rumia's. Flandre had such an intense spark in her eye that Rumia backed away a little. She then looked behind herself only to see that Yukari too had gone silent and was looking at her with a bit surprised and confused look on her face. She then backed away a one step and seemingly dropped her stance.

"Thank you," Flandre uttered while looking at Yukari. She then turned back towards Rumia and backed away from her a couple of steps. But even if Yukari had apparently calmed down Rumia showed no signs of standing down. She glared at Yukari and Flandre while retaining that hateful but nervous look on her face. This lasted for a good moment until the silence was finally broken by Alice.

"Wait... Do you hear that?" Alice suddenly asked and looked around herself.

"Alice this is not the time for-," Okina started but Alice interrupted her before she could even finish her sentence.

"No, I'm serious, listen. I hear... laughter," Alice said with a little confused but concentrated look on her face. The others too took a listen at that point and Alice was right. They heard laughter.

"Wait, I recognize this... The laughter from the forest," Alice uttered after realizing why the laughter sounded so familiar. She immediately looked around herself to find the possible source of this sound but the answer rushed before their eyes sooner than they expected.

"Rumia," They heard being yelled as a small human boy ran out of nowhere straight at Rumia and hugged her thightly.

"What the hell!? Who let that kid out from the village!?" Okina yelled after the kid had stormed past them.

"More importantly what the hell does he think he's doing!? Does this kid have a death wish!?" Youmu continued and immediately drew her swords.

"Quick, grab him before Rumia does anything," Yukari commanded while looking at Rumia and the kid with shocked and even a bit frightened look on her face. Kasen was just about to rush in and grab the child but Flandre managed to get on her way and stop her before she could do anything. Everyone looked at her with surprised and shocked looks on their faces.

"No, don't! Wait! Look at them," Flandre said and pointed at Rumia and the child hugging her. The look on Rumia's face was at least as surprised as on Yukari's and the others' but as they stood there and waited for what would happen. Rumia showed no signs of aggression. She just stared at the boy hugging her still and was stunned by shock. But when the boy finally stopped pressing his head against Rumia's black vest and looked up they were in for a shock. The boy started screaming from the bottom of her lungs, let go of Rumia and fell to his back onto the ground.

"That's it! That's the scream I heard from the forest right after the laughter! The second entity... Is it him?" Alice said out loud after they had recovered from the surprise the scream had caused. Everyone just looked at the boy as he was laying on the ground and staring at Rumia with frantic look on his face and breathing heavily. Yukari then gave a slight nod to Youmu who immediately rushed forwards, grabbed the boy from his arms and pulled him away from Rumia. Flandre however had kept her eyes glued on Rumia's face this whole time. Rumia had just stared at the boy not showing any signs that she would have wanted to attack him.

"You've been quite aggressive towards us and the humans tonight but suddenly you show no aggression towards this boy. Why?" Flandre then finally asked with curious tone and look on her face while approaching Rumia slowly. Rumia however didn't respond. She just stared at the boy with that strange look on her face.

"Yana...," Rumia finally uttered while looking at the boy.

"What was that?" Flandre then asked but was once again ignored by Rumia.

"R-Rumia, I... You've changed," The boy then finally uttered while still laying on the ground and breathing frantically. Rumia simply stared back at the boy and then at herself.

"Okay what is going on? First this child runs out of nowhere laughing, hugs her, screams for his life and now he once again acts like he knows her," Okina said with frustrated and even a bit annoyed tone. They then watched how Rumia squatted down carefully and stretched her hand towards the boy laying on the ground. The boy however winced a little and backed away even more. Upon seeing this Rumia suddenly gazed down and looked almost depressed.

"I- I don't know what went into me. Suddenly I just... I just got new memories popping up inside my head and... I'm still getting more," The child said while holding his head with confused and a bit frightened look on her face.

"So you remember me?" Rumia then suddenly asked without even looking at the boy.

"Y- yeah, I do. We... we played hide and seek..., didn't we?" The boy asked while looking at Rumia and tilted his head.

"Yes, we did. I remember it too I just... didn't think about it before this," Rumia said while still looking down.

"What are you two on about?" Kasen then asked with worried and confused tone and look on her face.

"Shhh. That boy is the second entity that we saw and heard in the Forest of Magic a while back. If we play this right we might figure out what is going on. Let them talk," Alice said with intrigued look on her face. She was right. They hadn't seen Rumia act like this which ignited their hopes of finally ending this. Flandre then approached the two a little. The boy and Rumia then looked at her but there was next to no signs of hostility in Rumia's eyes anymore.

"I convinced you to help me resurrect Marisa, didn't I," Flandre then uttered and sat down before them. The boy looked at Flandre for a moment and nodded slightly.

"Y- yes. Although... it also feels like you didn't," The boy responded while holding her head with confused look on her face.

"Don't think about it too much. The memories you have are real and they're your's although... they come from different... uhhh, place," Flandre said while drawing a circle in the air with he finger and trying to come up with understandable explanation for the boy.

"Why did you attack us? I thought... I thought we could be friends?" The boy then uttered and turned her gaze towards Rumia. Rumia then looked back at him with almost surprised look on her face.

"I... ehhh," Rumia started but couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't directly hurt the feelings of that boy.

"Rumia, you claim that you hate humanity because they forsake you. But look at that kid and tell me honestly, did they forsake you or did you forsake them. The greatest fear of human mind is the fear of the unknown," Flandre said and looked directly at Rumia who was currently looking down. She was clearly going over a confilct with herself inside her head. Rumia the finally lifted her gaze from the ground and looked at the boy.

"Yana... you're the only human who has ever showed kindness towards me except for my own parents. Even amongst the youkai I never had a friendly relationship with anyone, so... sorry. I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you," Rumia said and the look on her face was something Flandre had never seen before. Such regret and honesty was rare to see especially on a face that of a youkai. Flandre was almost twitching with delight after she heard that but she had to keep her calm not to cause any unwanted commotion. Everything could still go wrong.

"But why did you do this? I don't understand," Yana responded with still confused tone and look on his face.

"It's... probably for the best if you didn't know. There are things that are just not good for you no matter how much you'd want them... *sigh And that's why I can't stay here," Rumia uttered and stood up from the ground. Everyone immediately prepared themselves but Flandre stood still on her place and just observed.

"I'm not fit to this world. It is not ready... nor am I. I go my own way now," Rumia said while looking at Yana with plaintive look on her face. She even cracked a gentle smile.

"Where are you going? Can I come see you?" Yana asked with eager tone and tilted his head.

"No. Because even I don't know where I'm going. I just... I just need to find a place. Some place where I can fit," Rumia responded and was just about to turn around and take her first steps away from the village when Yukari's sharp voice reached her ear.

"You aren't leaving until you have resolved this conflict," Yukari said with strict look on her face and her parasol's tip piercing the ground beneath it. Rumia turned around and looked at her for a moment.

"I've loosened my grip on them already minutes ago. Everyone absorbed by their own timeline will pass out soon. And when they wake up they'll suffer from bad headache but everyone will come back to their senses," Rumia said while looking back at Yukari. The look on Yukari's face switched immediately although she still looked very serious. There was a short silence before Rumia turned around again and started walking towards the forest. However she was quickly stopped again when she felt something grabbing her feet. She looked down and saw a pair of hands clutching around her feet. She looked behind herself and saw Yana hugging her feet.

"I just want you to know that I forgive you and I want you to be safe," Yana said while pressing her face against Rumia's black and a little torn dress. Rumia looked at Yana for a moment, tousled his hair a little and then pushed him away gently while giving him a slight nod. Yana and the rest of them then just looked how Rumia walked towards the treeline without looking back even once. They then turned her gazes towards Reimu who had apparently fallen unconsciouss but when they tried to get one last glimpse of Rumia she was already gone.

It was silent. Everyone looked at each other. It took them a good few moments till it sank into their heads that the human village was saved and those that had been turned would come back to normal if they could trust Rumia's word. But it was upon that realization that they noticed how Flandre was missing. No one had seen her after Rumia disappeared and no one had seen her leave. Meiling was worried about her but knowing that the biggest danger had been beaten she hoped that Flandre wouldn't run into trouble.

Flandre was currently flying above the trees of the Forest of Magic tracking Rumia down. She had slipped out from everyone's line of sight while their eyes were glued onto Yana and Rumia. Flandre still had questions only Rumia could answer. Flandre's eyes were constantly searching through the forets for sings for Rumia. A normal human would never find anything from such hights but vampires had an exceptional eye sight especially in the dark so it didn't take Flandre long till she saw a familiar figure on the forest floor. She immediately took a dive down and landed directly in front of the familiar person.

Rumia watched with rather confused and a bit annoyed look on her face as Flandre stood up from the ground on the spot where she had landed. Rumia had thought that she could be in peace for now but seieng how Flandre followed her irritated her a bit.

"I thought you'd forgive me if I just stood down. Why did you follow me? Leave me be," Rumia uttered with calm but a bit uneasy tone.

"I still need answers from you. Where are you planning to go? Youkai and human society consists of the whole Gensokyo and the outside world is a complete wreck. There's no place for you to leave," Flandre said with doubtful look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"It may seem like it but I've seen the outside world many times before and I know that when everything collapses it'll be the last safe haven for everybody. That's where you'll end up too, sooner or later," Rumia said and looked at Flandre with strange look on her face. She looked rather suspicious.

"It doesn't need to come to that. Just tell me who is behind all of this and I'll put an end to it," Flandre insisted with strict tone.

"I cannot tell you that. You'll have to find that out on your own," Rumia responded and kept staring at Flandre.

"Why can't anyone tell me anything!?" Flandre then retorted angrily but it was then when Rumia stepped closer to her and squatted a little so that their eyes were on the same level.

"Because your heart would break," Rumia uttered and stood up again. Flandre looked at her for a moment before opening her mouth accompanied with rather uncomfortable look on her face.

"You... you don't mean that Marisa...?" Flandre then uttered and backed away from Rumia to which Rumia simply responded, "No, it's not her. I can tell you that much. Why would have I wanted to help the culprit if she was the culprit and I wanted to kill her?" After that Flandre sighed for releaf before Rumia continued.

"You should probably go to her and tell her that she isn't the culprit. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if she herself had started to doubt her sanity," Rumia said with serious tone and look on her face.

"But she'll want proof. She wont just take my word for it," Flandre said while looking at Rumia with much more releived look on her face.

"Tell her that she has nothing to worry about. Alice may blame her but she wasn't behind the murder of the first child," Rumia said with calm tone.

"Then who was?" Flandre asked and tilted her head.

"I was. Upon arriving to this reality my consciousness has to make sure it is capable of interracting with the world around it if it wants to kill its target or to find its host. And the most efficent way to do that is to make sure it is able to kill," Rumia said with serious tone while looking at Flandre.

"An entity with no physical form can easily slip into the village without being seen and get the job done," Rumia said and then looked around herself.

"You didn't say that out loud back there because...," Flandre started but Rumia was quick to finish her sentence, "Because if I did they'd never forgive me. Not Yukari, not Reimu and especially not Yana." Flandre looked at Rumia for a moment.

"Now leave me be. There's nothing more to tell you and I want to be in peace. Go to your precious Marisa," Rumia said and started walking again after taking one last glimpse at Flandre. Flandre stood still and simply looked how Rumia continued her walk deeper into the forest and presumably towards the barrier. She stood still until she finally lost her visual to Rumia. Now when Rumia was gone she had to get to Marisa and make sure she was okay. Flandre turned around towards the direction where Marisa's house was and took flight. She looked down and saw the Forest of Magic beneath her. It was as quiet as when she had returned to Gensokyo from the Lunar Capital but this time it wasn't eerily quiet. It was quite soothing actually. She couldn't be one hundred percent sure if what Rumia had said about releasing her grip on those absorbed by their own timeline was true but her gut feeling told her that she could sigh for a releaf at least for now.

Her flight towards Marisa's house wasn't too long and after about five minutes she could distinguish a familiar looking open spot in the forest in the middle of which was a house. Flandre started to descent closer to the ground now when she was almost at Marisa's house. She made her way through the tree branches nimbly and upon touching the ground she could see Marisa's house clearly before her eyes. No lights were on and it seemed like no one was home but Flandre knew that there was no other place where Marisa would hide if her home was still an option. She very well remembered how something like this had happened the first time. She really hoped that history wouldn't repeat itself.

After observing the scenery for a moment she started walking towards the house. She knew that Marisa shouldn't have any ill will towards her but she never knew how she could act. She could mistake her for someone hostile and attack for all she knew. Flandre kept approaching the house until she reached the steps leading to the terrace. At that point it was quite obvious that no one was going to attack her. If someone had wanted to they'd done it when she was on the open. That's why she didn't bother to be careful as she took the last steps towards the front door of Marisa's house and knocked.

"Marisa, it's me. There's nothing to be afraid of," Flandre said while trying to listen if she could hear anything from the inside. There was no responce. She then sighed and knocked again.

"Marisa, I know you're in there. I just want to talk," Flandre said again with a bit impatient tone. But still there was no responce. Flandre sighed again. Marisa was persistent when it came to isolating herself it seemed.

"I'm coming in," Flandre then said and pressed the door handle. The door wasn't locked so it clicked open like usual. Flandre pulled it open and peeked inside. The inside of the house was dark. That was to be expected if Marisa wanted to hide there. Flandre stepped in and shut the door behind herself. Flandre looked around herself in the dark. She then inhaled the dusty air and could clearly smell Marisa's presence. She the started walking further into the house but didn't get very far when she saw a familiar bundle on Marisa's sofa. It was Marisa. She was burying her face to her knees while hugging her legs tightly. Flandre walked closer to her and sat next to her. Flandre looked at her for a moment before touching her head gently.

"Marisa, there's nothing to fear. You don't need to doubt yourself, you're not the culprit no matter what anyone might say," Flandre said to quiet but slightly shivering Marisa.

"Nothing makes sense anymore. Why would Alice frame for the murder? She knows that it'd be useless for me to even try," Marisa mumbled while still burying her face to her knees.

"We're all confused. Maybe she just thinks she's doing the right thing?" Flandre said with compassionated tone and look on her face. But it was then when Marisa lifted her face from her feet and looked at Flandre. It seemed as though she had been crying recently. Though it wouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

"No, she isn't confused. I just don't understand why she would blame me so persistently while she is behind the kidnappings of those kids. She blamed me even when there were no witnesses. Does she really think I was behind the murder?" Marisa said with much more darker tone.

"Wh- what are you on about," Flandre then asked and looked at Marisa with concerned look on her face. Marisa then stood up, took a few steps so that she was facing towards Flandre and then squatted before her so that their eyes met.

"After the first child was murdered Alice kidnapped half of the kids of the human village over night. But why would she do that, it doesn't make any sense?" Marisa asked while staring at Flandre with wide open eyes.

"A- are you feeling alright? Maybe you should lay down and cool your head," Flandre said a bit nervously.

"No, listen. Alice has the kids I know it. I saw them, she has them locked in her basement. They're under some... sleeping spell, I don't know precisely what but I've seen them," Marisa said while still staring at Flandre.

"Then why haven't you told anybody?" Flandre asked with unsure tone. She really couldn't tell if Marisa had completely lost it.

"You think Alice would go this far and then have no back up plan? She is sure to come up with some explanation to save her hide or maybe she doesn't have the kids in her basement anymore. Nevertheless I've never had a good opportunity to tell anyone," Marisa said and stood up right again.

"So you don't doubt that it was you who killed the kid?" Flandre asked to confirm Marisa was still sane.

"I'm absolutely positive that I'm not the one behind it, thank you for asking," Marisa repsonded with a bit irritated tone and look on her face.

"Good, because Rumia told me that it was actually her. She was the culprit when her consciousness was still that formless entity," Flandre said with slightly more revealed look on her face.

"Wait, she told you? You mean you managed to get her to talk?" Marisa asked with surprised and doubtful tone.

"Yes, we actually got her to stand down completely. She was also behind the people going crazy. She promised to release her grip on them before leaving," Flandre explained what had happened after Marisa had fled.

"You mean... you let her go? Just like that?" Marisa then asked with bit more frightened look on her face.

"What else we could have done. Imprisoning her means that it would be just a matter of time before she would escape and killing her was impossible. Besides neither option would have resolved the matter of everyone going mad. That's why we allowed her to leave," Flandre explained and looked at a bit frightened Marisa.

"Where did she leave? Did she tell where she was going?" Marisa asked and backed away from Flandre a little bit.

"Don't worry she isn't coming for you. She said she would leave human and youkai society for good. Said that she neither the world was ready. I'd guess that means she is planning to leave Gensokyo though she didn't tell exactly where she was going," Flandre said with thoughtful tone and look on her face.

"More and more people are leaving Gensokyo...," Marisa then muttered and turned away from Flandre.

"What do you mean by that? Something on your mind?" Flandre asked with curious tone and looked how Marisa started to walk back and forth on one spot.

"Yes, have you noticed how Gensokyo seems to be just a bubble of sorts. I almost feel like that someone wants us to stay within that bubble to stay out of their way," Marisa said while walking and rubbing her chin.

"What makes you think that that would be the case?" Flandre asked with confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"Think about it. We've tried to constantly figure out what is going on by staying within our protective bubble not finding anything useful even once. Then when we finally manage to confront and beat someone who knew something. They don't tell us much and then say they'll 'leave'. Where else would they leave other than the outside world?" Marisa said, stopped and stared at Flandre with maybe even enthused spark in her eye.

"So what you're saying is that...," Flandre started and Marisa was quick to finish the sentence she started, "...that we need to follow Rumia. We're wasting our time in this bubble. We need to switch from defensive to offensive." Flandre and Marisa looked at each other for a moment. It took Flandre couple of seconds to understand what Marisa meant.

"You... you're planning to leave Gensokyo and search through the outside world? But it's huge, trying to find one specific person from there is next to impossible. Not to mentione the barrier. How will you get through that?" Flandre said with confused tone and look on her face.

"Well then, first of all I'm not going to leave Gensokyo, you are," Marisa said and grinned slightly while looking at Flandre.

"What, me!? Why in the world would you suggest that I would be the one to leave?" Flandre exclaimed with a little shocked tone.

"Hear me out on this. I've also come up with theory how you can traverse through that barrier. Objects tend to appear in Gensokyo when they are forgotten the those in the outside world. In the other words they disappear from the minds of the people outside. Animals however can come and go through the barrier as they please. Animals also don't have a concept of fantasy or reality. We've had also occasions where actual people have managed to get through the barrier and usually it happens when they do not realize it. To put it simply it happens when is absorbed in thought. That also happened to one of my doppelgangers. She told me that she found herself in some twisted landscape after her thoughts slipped for a while. So what I'm suggesting is that you have to somehow temporarily forget or suppress all you know and remember about Gensokyo. It is the barrier of common sense after all and Gensokyo isn't really fond of common sense. So cleansing your mind temporarily from Gensokyo should cast you out from the bubble," Marisa explained with a bit enthused look on her face.

"B- but why me?" Flandre asked with a bit concerned and confused look on her face. She didn't really understand Marisa's theory but she believed Marisa knew what she was talking about.

"Because world is falling apart and in that world you're a special case. You've travelled through realities always emerging before the rupture. You have some relation to all of this so I'd wager you're the most safe doing this. That's why I believe you have the biggest chance in pulling this off, finding the culprit and destroying them," Marisa said and looked Flandre dead in the eyes. Marisa was right but the only problem was that they were talking about things they barely comprehended let alone understood. The thought of leaving Gensokyo alone and during such time frightened Flandre especially the thought of doing it alone.

"Why wouldn't you come too?" Flandre then managed to ask carefully.

"I have other things that require my full attention. I have to prove that it was Alice who kidnapped those children. I also have to figure out if there's anything to be found out about Yuuka's disappearing," Marisa responded with determined tone and look on her face.

"You really think this is a good idea?" Flandre asked with unsure tone and tilted her head.

"Well I'm not exactly sure about anything but I'd say anything is worth a shot at this point," Marisa responded after scratching her hair for a moment.

"I feared that you'd say that. That's because I have to do certain safety procedure," Flandre said, stood up from the sofa and approached Marisa with serious look on her face. Flandre then grabbed Marisa's wrist and brought it before herself.

"Open your hand," Flandre commanded with serious tone.

"Huh?" Marisa uttered with confused tone and opened her palm like Flandre had told her. She then looked how Flandre dag something out from her pocket and dropped it onto Marisa's palm. It was the watch Flandre supposedly used to time travel.

"Huh? Why... why are you giving me this?" Marisa asked with confused tone and look on her face while looking at the watch on her hand.

"It really wouldn't be wise to take this thing straight to our enemy given that I'll even find them. Besides, this is more of a safety procedure to make sure you'll stay safe rather than the watch," Flandre said and stared at Marisa.

"What do you mean by that?" Marisa asked with even more confused look on her face.

"Promise me that you'll use this to escape if you ever end up in a life threatening situation," Flandre said and stared at Marisa with serious look on her face.

"Huh? Time travel away? But wouldn't that mess things up even more?" Marisa asked and backed awya a little.

"I don't care. World where I cannot see you isn't a world worth returning to. If you die while I'm away there's really no point for me to carry on. Just open the watch and concentrate to the time and place where you want to be," Flandre said with dead serious tone and look on her face.

"You really don't have to do this, you know. I mean we-," Marisa started but didn't get to finish her sentence as Flandre finished it for her.

"We are not even friends. I really don't care if I matter to you or not but you still matter to me and that's all that is important," Flandre said while staring Marisa. She then backed away from her, turned around and started walking towards the front door.

"Now, I believe we both have important matters to attend to. You go investigate Alice and I'm going to do... what ever I'm going to do. But just in case this is the last time we see each other I just want you to know that knowing you has meant a lot to me. So... bye," Flandre uttered while walking towards the front door without even looking at Marisa. Marisa just looked how Flandre walked to the door, opened it, stepped out and shut the door behind herself. Marisa was left standing there with a little baffled look on her face. She then looked at the watch in her hand.

"B- bye...," Marisa uttered with still a bit confused tone and look on her face. Flandre on the other hand had taken flight right after stepping out from Marisa's house and shutting the door behind herself. She wanted to head back to the village so that everyone would know that she was okay. She also wanted to tell Yukari about Marisa's plan although leaving out the fact that it was Marisa's. She really didn't know what everyone opinion was about Marisa but she wanted to play it safe. She was also planning to tell what Rumia had told her. That Marisa wasn't behind the murder of that first kid. That should give Marisa at least a bit of breathing space.

Flandre was starting to close in on the village as it had appeared into the distance from behind the tree tops. And as she flew closer she started seeing how number of humans and youkai had started to come out from the village. Apparently they wanted to clean the battlefield from bodies and prepare them for burying. Well all that was left of the corpses anyway. Flandre flew over the scenery searching for Yukari and the others with her eyes but didn't see them. She kept flying around until she finally found them standing on the wall near the spot where the wall had collapsed during the battle. Flandre started descending towards them and it seemed that they noticed her too given how they all looked at her. Or 'all' would be a little strong word. It seemed that only Kasen, Yukari, Ran, Renko and Okina were there currently. Flandre landed before them while they all looked at her with rather strange looks on their faces.

"Where have you been?" Renko asked with concerned look on her face as Flandre walked closer to them.

"I had few questions I needed to ask Rumia after she left. She told me that it wasn't Marisa who killed that kid, Alice was wrong. Rumia confessed, it was her, Marisa is innocent," Flandre said after catching her breath. Flying back and forth above Gensokyo could get tiresome pretty quickly especially if one had just been in a battle. The others looked Flandre for a good moment before looking at each other.

"She said that she did it while she was still in that entity form to make sure she could interract with the world around her. She didn't say it out loud before all of us to avoid making the conflict worse," Flandre esplained with serious look on her face.

"I see. I guess getting angry at her at this point is useless but I will make sure to end her if she ever dares to return here. She has no place in Gensokyo," Yukari said with cold tone but the look on her face didn't even twitch.

"I think you should probably find other way to deal with her than making more conflict than there already is," Flandre said and put her arms akimbo.

"She was my creation so she is my responsibility. I'll decide what is the correct action to deal with her. But that'll have to wait. Kasen, you said you were bringing some sort of a message from the Four Devas of the Mountain?" Yukari asked after speaking with Flandre. Yukari turned around and faced towards Kasen who was tanding behind Yukari when looked from Flandre's direction. Flandre had hard time trying to peek behind Yukari but managed to finally see Kasen before she opened her mouth.

"That's right, although I don't know how late I am with this message. Helping you fend of Rumia and her horde took long enough," Kasen said with almost worried look on her face.

"Just tell us what you people want," Okina bridled with impatient tone and her arms akimbo. Kasen took a quick glance at her before continuing.

"They wanted me to come to the surface and inform you that the rest will follow shortly after me. But since it took me so long to deliver this message they might already be almost here. They've decided that the barrier must be torn down. They want to march to the outside world and bring the fight to the culprit. Who ever they may be," Kasen said with calm but serious tone.

"That's provocation! Are you out of your minds. We would tear down the only shield we have!? Besides we don't even know if the culprit is in the outside world or not. We shouldn't-," Okina retorted with offended tone and look on her face but Yukari was quick to cover her mouth with her fan so she would let her speak.

"What exactly do you mean with 'the others'?" Yukari then asked with much more serious tone and look on her face. They saw how Kasen was just about answer when they heard something. It sounded like foot steps but the sounds were much louder than anyone could create by walking. But as the sound got closer they started to distinguish separate sounds from the marching foot steps. They weren't made by one being, but many. They all then turned their gaze towards the treeline behind the still messy battlefield just in time to see Yuugi, Suika and Konngara step out from the forest. Okina seemed like she was about to say something but stopped when they realized that the three Oni weren't alone. More Oni started appearing from the forest behind them. First ten, then dozens, then hundreds. When Yuugi, Suika and Konngara had marched just hundred meters after appearing from the forest at least five hundred Oni could be seen following them, more appearing constantly.

"That... That's what I meant by the others," Kasen said while watching how the Oni army marched towards the village completely decked out with armor and weapons. Konngara had his sword tied to his belt. The shapes that had been hanging form the chains attached to Suika's iron belt had been replaced with iron balls but by far the most threatening looking was Yuugi. She was spinning two nasty looking blades in her hands that were also attached to her belt with chains. The handles of the both blades had a metal rings around them which made it possible to spin the blades while the handle stood still.

"My god...," Flandre could simply utter as the Oni army marched towards the human village. And by the looks of it they were prepared. For what? They didn't know.

 **Author's side note**

And so ends the third part of this already more massive story than I anticipated. But so far it seems that the fourth part will be the last one. But the fourth part is what I want to talk to you about. I'm terribly sorry but it is very likely that it'll take over a year before it will be released because my military service (which I mentioned in the note left to the part II) starts in under two months. The fourth part is simply too long to be completed in two months and it is impossible for me to write while I'm running around a forest with a gun. That's why I wanted to inform you that it may take a while till the finale of the finale will be out. But don't worry. I'll release it eventually, you have my word. I'm not the type of guy to leave things unfinished. So, you'll see to what this all pours down to some other day. But that day is not today. I'll be seeing you then. (Also sorry for not putting this episode into the crossover section. I think it is obvious that this would belong there but considering that each part is released separately it would be impossible for those who don't follow me but still follow this story to find this part.)


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